Rethinkhttps://rethink.earth
Resilience thinking for global developmentWed, 05 Dec 2018 10:05:30 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.1Harvesting rain to improve crops across Africahttps://rethink.earth/harvesting-rain-to-improve-crops-across-africa/
https://rethink.earth/harvesting-rain-to-improve-crops-across-africa/#respondWed, 05 Dec 2018 06:00:45 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=2947Once one of Africa’s largest bodies of fresh water, Lake Chad is disappearing fast. Climate change has shifted the rainfall patterns that once reliably fed the lake, and coupled with uncontrolled irrigation, the lake has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s. Lake Chad is an important source of water and food for millions of people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the lake has seen a 60% decline in fish production, and the quality of the surrounding land has declined, reducing livestock production and biodiversity.

The story of Lake Chad’s water woes echoes throughout the surrounding Sahel region and the rest of Africa. Soil degradation and massive losses of rainwater from fields through evaporation are contributing to large yield gaps in crop production. But experiments with water-harvesting techniques and careful fertilisation in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Ethiopia have demonstrated an untapped potential to more than double agricultural output of smallholder farmers in some cases.11. Barron, J., 2009. Rainwater harvesting: a lifeline for human well-being. United Nations Environment Programme. Link to abstract and PDF downloadSee all references
Such solutions will be necessary to face future food and farming challenges, including climate change and land degradation.

New water ways needed

In the Sahel, small-scale farmers can no longer sustain themselves through conventional farming practices. Declining soil fertility, decreased crop productivity and yields due to climatic extremes, and decreased land access due to population pressure leave nearly 12 million small-scale farmers chronically vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity and about a fifth of the households ultra-poor. Even in good rainfall years, many adopt harmful coping mechanisms such as taking on more debt, eating fewer daily meals, and selling their assets.

Faced with such a challenge, calls for improved irrigation are understandable; however, attempts to “modernise” agriculture risk depleting water reserves unsustainably, exacerbating competition and conflict. New ways of thinking will be required that combine old wisdom with an appropriate level of artificial input.

Global water policies have been seeking to meet the needs for reliable water supply through new infrastructure, for example, damming and pumping water from rivers, lakes, or groundwater. Such water, which flows either above or below ground and is amenable to pumping and irrigation, is called “blue water”. In contrast, “green water” is rain that falls directly on fields and is temporarily stored in soil. Only occasionally has the natural supply of rainwater been factored into policy solutions, even in areas where rain-fed agriculture has been the norm for as long as anyone can remember.33. Falkenmark, M., Rockström, J., 2006. The new blue and green water paradigm: Breaking new ground for water resources planning and management. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. 132(3):129. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(2006)132:3(129)See all references

Malin Falkenmark, a senior advisor to the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre (which publishes Rethink), has lived through the era of engineer-driven water management. She has spent most of her decades-long career showing the potential of rain-fed agriculture and the benefits it has to offer in many parts of the world. She is not impressed by the majority of development initiatives that aim to improve water availability in arid and semi-arid regions.

“There is a certain degree of ‘water blindness’ in most projects aimed at increasing agricultural output,” Falkenmark says. “One often fails to account for the most obvious solutions, those that hinder the evaporation, improve the soil’s ability to retain water and increase rainwater storage in local reservoirs. Because the dominant methodologies were developed in Western countries with reliable rainfall, the varying ability of soils and vegetation to retain rainwater is often neglected. This has created an unsustainable need for irrigation in many dry regions of the developing world.”

“There is a certain degree of ‘water blindness’ in most projects aimed at increasing agricultural output”

–Malin Falkenmark, senior advisor to the Stockholm International Water Institute

Line Gordon, a long-time researcher in water management research and current director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), adds: “For political leaders, water infrastructure is often associated with economic development, while more traditional practices, such as rainwater harvesting, are deemed as backward and unproductive.”

Irrigation can be unsustainable in several ways. Excessive extraction of blue water can cause a rapid decline in available water, with consequences both for local ecosystems and for fulfilling people’s diverse water needs, for example for sanitation and agriculture. Irrigation can also change climate parameters that are important for crop development, such as surface temperature and air moisture.44. Jaramillo, F., Destouni, G., 2015. “Local flow regulation and irrigation raise global human water consumption and footprint”. Science. 350(6265):1248–1251. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad1010.See all references

In Africa, the opportunities for irrigation are also limited. Across the continent, 95% of food production is rain-fed. Only 5.5% of arable land is suitable for irrigation because of limited water availability and landscape features that make irrigation difficult, such as steep hillsides. The continent has 60% of the globe’s uncultivated arable land, and much of it remains unfarmed for these reasons.55. You, L., Ringler, C., Wood-Sichra, U., Robertson, R., Wood, S., Zhu, T., Nelson, G., Guo, Z. and Sun, Y., 2011. What is the irrigation potential for Africa? A combined biophysical and socioeconomic approach. Food Policy, 36(6), pp.770-782.See all references

Getting a handle on water use

Data from the Water Footprint Network, a non-profit multi-stakeholder collaboration between the private sector, the public sector, and individuals, show that green water represents about three-quarters of global water consumption, and even more than that for subsistence farming, where people produce food for local consumption. The Water Footprint Network established a standardised water measurement tool to measure and report on water consumption in a consistent way and to calculate not only the amount of water consumed by various businesses, but also when, where, and how it is consumed. Even losses through evaporation are accounted for, revealing the need for water conservation techniques.

Using data from this tool and water requirements from the FAO, researcher Fernando Jaramillo and colleagues at the SRC are contrasting projected growing water needs with future declines in water supply due to climate change. Jaramillo notes that fulfilling Africa’s water needs will be heavily associated with dietary choices as well as competing demands from industry and future urban growth. “At the same time, urbanisation and industrialisation increase the pressure on already strained blue-water resources and raise the need for new approaches,” he says.

Climate change projections are also cause for particular concern, Jaramillo says. In many areas around the equator, farmers will have to produce more with less water, in order to feed a growing population, while facing lack of reliability of rainfall.

Traditional techniques, such as soil and water conservation and rainwater harvesting, are enjoying a revival worldwide in areas where irrigation is impractical. These techniques may form an important but overlooked resource that can be used to transform the agricultural sector and build resilience to be able to tackle climate change risks and growing food demands.

Doing more with nothing?

Shrinking water reservoirs will be one problem to be faced in Africa as climate changes and population demands continue to grow. Lake Chad is shrinking fast, sparking a response that is symptomatic for the blue-water paradigm: multi-billion dollar plans have been set up to divert water from the Congo River system to “refill” the lake. A US$50 billion canal will be designed to divert up to 100 billion m3 of water per year to the lake.

Lake Chad, Africa, in December 1972 (left), 1987 (middle), and 2002 (right). Once the world’s sixth largest lake, Lake Chad has shrunk about one-twentieth of the size it was in the 1960s due to drought, compounded by irrigation and other human uses. Large wetland areas, shown in red, replaced open water as the lake receded. Images from the US Geological Survey Landsat Missions Gallery, provided by NASA Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.

The US$50 billion plan for Lake Chad stands in stark contrast with a recent initiative to raise US$100 billion for building water resilience for food security and human well-being in Africa as a whole, through rainwater harvesting, storage, and other traditional techniques. The initiative was launched in 2016 at the Falkenmark Symposium held in conjunction with World Water Week, SIWI’s annual conference in Stockholm, Sweden. The symposium provides an opportunity for scientists and practitioners to address and discuss water management challenges.

In an appeal taken up by symposium participants in a call for action, Falkenmark said that eradicating hunger in Africa requires nothing less than a “green-water revolution”: a “deep mind-shift” from the predominant blue (liquid) water paradigm, to an integrated green-and-blue-water paradigm that builds water resilience.66. SIWI, 2016. "CALL FOR AN AFRICAN WATER REVOLUTION" Outcome from the Malin
Falkenmark Symposium
at World Water Week in
Stockholm 2016: A Triple
Green Future for Humanity.Download PDF of StatementSee all references
The participants underscored the necessity of a shift in attitudes among public and private development funders: they want to see better coordination of public and private investments to implement small-scale farming innovations in rainwater harvesting.

According to the World Bank, investments in improved rain-fed agriculture have been shown to produce four times greater yield per dollar in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to investments in mechanised, irrigated agriculture.77. Ward, C. S., Torquebiau, R., Xie, H., 2016. Improved agricultural water management for Africa’s drylands (English). A World Bank study. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. Page to download PDFSee all references
But large-scale irrigation is still the preferred option among leading private and public investors.

According to a recent report produced by SIWI, supporting dialogues among development actors that respond to Falkenmark’s call, this can be explained by the much larger yields produced from lands that are amenable to large-scale irrigation, which attract investors by promising quick returns on investments. Much of these investments are directed towards non-food, export-targeted output, which does not improve African food self-sufficiency nor address rural poverty. New funding sources will be required, but much can be achieved by redirecting existing funding if efforts are efficiently coordinated.

Major development actors are now lining up to answer Falkenmark’s call. Experts from more than 20 organisations devoted to supporting Africa’s agriculture have reiterated the need to bring the issue to the forefront of the governments’ and investors’ agendas.

Their response also came in part to an invitation from Belay Begashaw, director general of the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, which has a mission to support governments, civil society, businesses, and academic institutions in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. As former minister of agriculture in Ethiopia, Begashaw knows first-hand the struggles and complex task of reconciling the aspirations of investors with the needs of rural farmers, but also local communities’ attempts to rise from poverty through improving the output of their labour and investments.

“The call for a green-water revolution,” he says, “is a fundamental measure of building resilience to the majority of the farmers who practise subsistence agriculture. Given the increasing climate vulnerability, access to water to African farmers through green-water intervention is one of the most critical adaptation strategies. Owing to the scientific work done by Falkenmark and her team for decades, African farmers are now in a position to adopt these practices at larger scales and get out of the quagmire they are entangled with, assuming that the financial resources can be made available.”

In the Sahel, such a mix of old and new thinking is proving effective. Groundswell International, a non-profit partnership focused on agriculture and food systems, has helped farmers use agroecological innovations to increase climate-resilient food production and improve dietary diversity through better management of green water. For example, the non-profit organisation has supported the expanded use of zaï pits – traditional planting methods that use green water effectively and can rehabilitate abandoned land and degraded soils.

Using the zaï method, farmers create small pits that catch water, then seed the pits after filling them with one to three handfuls of organic material such as manure, compost, or dry plant biomass. The pits create a micro-environment that helps increase drought resilience and improves crop yields for sorghum and millet. The biomass can also lead to increased termite activity, which in turn increases the rate of water infiltration when the rains come. Studies in Ethiopia showed that the zaï method can increase crop yields by 2.5 to 20 times, depending on the crop.88. Amede, T., Menza, M., Awlachew, S., 2011. Zai improves nutrient and water productivity in the Ethiopian highlands. Experimental Agriculture, 47(S1):7-20. DOI: 10.1017/S0014479710000803See all references

Groundswell International took a systems approach to scale up zaï pits as well as other seemingly modest methods that differ greatly from the conventional, top-down transfer of technology. This approach focuses on proven conservation agriculture methods to improve crop productivity and regenerate soils, along with a focus on scaling, equity, gender, nutrition and diets, livelihood diversity, and governance. Through improved green-water management, this project has improved the resilience of over 100,000 rural farming families in the Sahel.TK-source?

“Organisations like Groundswell International, Dabane Trust, and others are helping to reintroduce conservation agriculture and green-water harvesting practices by widely spreading processes of learning, innovation, systems thinking, and traditional knowledge to accelerate a transition to agroecological farming practices that offer a sustainable pathway to increased crop yields, improved livelihoods, and a more resilient future.”

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https://rethink.earth/harvesting-rain-to-improve-crops-across-africa/feed/0Disaster, hope, fear, and resilience in rural Puerto Ricohttps://rethink.earth/disaster-hope-fear-and-resilience-in-rural-puerto-rico/
https://rethink.earth/disaster-hope-fear-and-resilience-in-rural-puerto-rico/#respondThu, 15 Nov 2018 06:00:17 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=3218TETUÁN, PUERTO RICO –Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the US territory of Puerto Rico in the autumn of 2017. Four months later, Antonio “Tito” Valentín stands on a formidable bridge just outside his home of Tetuán, Puerto Rico. Tall and gregarious, Valentín waves his arms to show the length of the new bridge, made of freshly poured cement and rebar. It crosses a mountain stream deep in the most rural hollows of the island. Maria swept away most of the original 25-year-old concrete bridge.

“We are in the highway of the hurricanes,” he says.

The loss of the bridge isolated much of Valentín’s community of several hundred residents. A few weeks after the storm, they decided to pool their knowledge and resources and rebuild it – slightly bigger – themselves. Valentín, who is director of the non-profit organisation Corporación de Salud y Desarrollo Socioeconómico del OTOAO, says what would take a government-hired contractor a month to do, and cost thousands of dollars, the community members here built within four days, for a fraction of the cost.

Juan Rivera, a subsistence farmer in Utuado, Puerto Rico, stands in front of coffee shrubs destroyed by Hurricane María. Coffee plants take three to four years to grow. Photo: Rebecca Kiger.

“We are living history. We are living in the worst natural disaster in the last 100 years,” he says. “We need to recognise that the planet changed … Humans, it’s not very proud to say, but we destroy the planet. We use the resources as we can, we don’t care, but it has consequences.”

To prepare for what could be more intense hurricanes, Valentín says his community in and around Tetuán is working on projects to cultivate more diversified power generation systems, more robust and accessible health systems, and a diversified, viable economy. He says the goal is not only to survive, but to thrive.

“We can work to resolve the crisis and that’s all. But if we want to make these communities healthy, we need to think of long-term projects and long-term impact,” says Valentín.

Emerging patterns of resilience

Pablo Méndez-Lázaro has been visiting the rural community in the region of Utuado regularly since the storm, as part of his research at the environmental health department at the University of Puerto Rico. For the past decade, Méndez-Lázaro has studied resilience in the face of extreme weather. He says he’s observed a shift in attitude in rural Puerto Rico since Maria and Irma swept across the island in 2017, and that many fundamental principles of resilience are organically evolving within the community of Tetuán.

“Before the hurricane, they were trying to follow the governmental processes. Right after the hurricane, they changed strategy,” Méndez-Lázaro says. With already well-established neighbourly bonds and organisation, the community was able to be flexible and agile and respond efficiently and effectively to disaster.

Méndez-Lázaro says the community now has more confidence. Their goals are complex, tackling health, infrastructure, and education challenges, while considering the local and global environment. He says they’re also willing to recognise limitations in knowledge and to cultivate relationships with outside partners who can provide valuable skill sets, which is especially important, as Hurricane Maria led many of Puerto Rico’s professionals to move to the mainland United States, where their American citizenship may have facilitated their transition. With a daunting US$74 billion of debt (and an additional US$49 billion in unfunded liabilities according to Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico), the economic outlook for Puerto Rico – especially rural areas – is bleak.

“Valentín and his group have very big goals. And he knows when you talk about public health and when you talk about improving quality of life, you need to provide employment,” Méndez-Lázaro says.

Valentín hopes to bring industry back to his region and he’s especially focused on agro-tourism. He’s building farms where visitors, young people, and retirees can stay, work, or volunteer – away from the stresses of modern life. Standing in Tetuán looking out at the lush green mountain horizon, it’s easy to understand this vision. Despite the challenges to reinvent itself, to develop more sustainable food, energy, and infrastructure practices, it’s hard to feel hopeless while breathing in clean, cool, peaceful mountain air.

Tito Valentín, a community leader in Utuado, Puerto Rico, stands inside an old coffee-processing plant, which he hopes to revitalise for agro-tourism. Photo: Rebecca Kiger.

Farming the old ways

Valentín has been the director of Corporación de Salud y Desarrollo Socioeconómico del OTOAO for the past five years. The organisation serves about 7,000 residents in and around Tetuán. His organisation has acquired several abandoned buildings and properties that are being transformed into solar-powered community health resources, such as a clinic and outdoor exercise spaces. A year before Maria struck, the organisation also acquired an abandoned coffee hacienda.

“This is an old coffee factory,” Valentín says, pointing to a giant metal coffee-processing barn. “We want to establish a farm here, rehabilitate the area.”

The coffee-processing structure was built in the 1950s or 1960s, and survived hurricanes Irma and Maria without much damage.

“This is an old building with old construction codes. And it [withstood] the hurricanes,” Valentín says, pointing to the corrugated metal walls standing three storeys tall. Elsewhere across the island, thousands of newer homes still have blue, government-installed tarpaulins where roofs used to be. Meanwhile, the coffee barn has a single metal panel flapping in the breeze. “There’s some damage of course. But if you compare with new, [the old] are [like] brand new!”

This notion of recycling good ideas from the past comes up again down the road, literally: when Valentín stops on a narrow, twisting mountain lane where community members are gathered clearing mud Maria left behind.

“This is our machine,” Valentín says as he points to two men in a small bulldozer owned by his non-profit. He explains that the men working to scrape the fallen hillside off the road are volunteer community members. “A community machine. We don’t charge the communities.”

Most people here are low-income farmers, he says, so they only ask community members to provide the fuel to run the dozer.

Using a community bulldozer, community members work to clear roads over three months after Hurricane María. The machinery is shared without charge. Photo: Rebecca Kiger.

Farms here are small and diverse, and farmers are aging. Crops of coffee, plantains, citrus, and papaya were flattened by Maria’s up to 240-km/h winds. And like Valentín, farmers talk about climate change as a new reality.

One farmer, Juan Rivera, spoke about changing climate patterns making life harder. When asked, “Are you worried about the future?” his response is quick. “No,” he says matter-of-factly, “we have insurance: Jesus.”

As these communities are predominantly Catholic, religion is an integral part of their life, but faith in God alone could not protect them from Maria’s wrath. Puerto Rico imports about 85% of its food – now even more, as farmers have had to restart their farms from scratch after the 2017 hurricane season.

While channels to access food are at least well-established, most isolated communities had to dig out to reconnect to them after Maria, which took weeks. Everyone in interior island communities lost weight after the hurricane turned the whole island to mud.

Even so, four months after the storm, everything was green again. Another farmer points to a steep hillside where he used to grow coffee. Now he is harvesting 23-kg pumpkins. “After the hurricane, the wind carried seeds, and plants appeared in different places. That’s the case with this vine of pumpkins,” he says.

Root vegetables survived, too. Many Puerto Rican farmers talk about how the indigenous Taíno people who populated this island before Columbus arrived – opening an era of colonisation – used to grow a lot of root vegetables.

María Luisa “Maruchi” Martínez, a retired teacher, was replanting root vegetables in the wake of Hurricane Maria, like yams and sweet potatoes, pointing to indigenous practices and fast-healing ecosystems as sources of knowledge and inspiration. “I think we have to learn from the nature, to regrow and overcome,” she says, smiling. “Nature is showing us the way, and we should follow it.”

Subsistence farming was hard living that fell by the wayside years ago, but according to William Gould, research ecologist and director of the US Department of Agriculture’s Caribbean Climate Hub, there is a movement to “return to the land” and to grow local plants as food. One group has bypassed machinery and is using sure-footed oxen to plough and manage the steep terrain more easily.

Gould says that technology found in use on large industrial farms today – such as automated sensors and drones – is helpful, but the farmers with oxen didn’t have to wait for power or fuel and were some of the first back on their feet after Maria.

A view of Las Dos Bocas, a reservoir and dam constructed decades ago to provide hydropower to the municipality of Utuado, Puerto Rico. Restoring the hydroelectricity project is estimated to cost up to US$150 million. Puerto Rico had the longest blackout in US history after Hurricane María, and residents of Utuado were some of the last to receive power. Photo: Rebecca Kiger.

Distributed power generation

Back on the road overseeing community-led clean-up efforts, Valentín speaks about the value of responsibility and accountability. “It’s important when the communities take the responsibility,” he says. “It’s easier, it’s faster to fix the problems. Because we know our problems.”

But Valentín also knows and appreciates the value of diversity, and the revitalising effects diverse perspectives and assistance can bring to isolated communities. The storms were very damaging, he says, but they also brought visitors and attention to pre-existing needs.

One such visitor to the rural, interior region was Alyssa Curran. At the time a master and urban planning candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in the United States, Curran and a group of interdisciplinary students turned their focus to Puerto Rico as part of the Climate Solutions Living Lab, a course in their programme. Their goal was to examine and develop solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating multiple co-benefits such as improved economy, cost savings on utility bills, innovation, technology, or public health benefits.

“Our team was supposed to be focused on distributed energy resources, and after the hurricanes hit Puerto Rico, it just became a pretty obvious geographic area to focus on,” she says. Curran met with people working in as many systems in the Utuado region as possible, from the small business community, family medicine, teachers, urban planners, social justice advocates, people in the legal profession, former government officials, branch managers for water and energy authorities, and representatives from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Ideas emerged, such as adding solar to the roofs of key community buildings. Residential solar was quickly deemed cost-prohibitive for the majority of rural Puerto Rican populations, where the average yearly income is about US$13,000 per year. But the idea that stuck was a community-managed electric cooperative based around hydroelectric units that were built into human-made island dams in the 1930s and 1940s.

“The hydroelectric units themselves are already there,” Curran explains. “They were put in the reservoirs that serve as reservoirs for drinking water as well as for hydropower. There are 21 hydro-generating units across the island, but the utilisation rate is very low.”

Curran says the island shifted away from hydropower towards fossil fuel power sometime after the 1950s. “It’s kind of still unclear to me why hydro was abandoned in the way that it was,” she says.

Today a coalition of local communities led by the non-profit organisation Unidos por Utuado is forming a hydroelectric cooperative. The organisation’s executive director, C. P. Smith, says Utuado residents could have been the first on the island to have power restored, but instead most went without electricity for nearly a year after Hurricane Maria struck.

Smith estimates that restoring those hydropower units would cost between US$120 million and US$150 million and, given the island’s current debt, there is no way Puerto Rico can afford the project.

“We would not be where we are today without a number of organisations – importantly – that are outside the island,” he says.

He stresses that any glorified image of the self-reliant, self-sustaining rural community is a dangerous mirage. In the months following Maria, he’s watched as local businesses have continued to close shop. He says the sobering and daunting reality is that without significant governmental policy shifts on the island and within the US government, and without outside assistance, Puerto Rico will almost certainly see much more difficulty ahead.

Community connectivity

Back on the ridgetops of rural Tetuán, Valentín shakes hands and laughs heartily with another visitor to his community: Captain Juan Carlos Villa, a Colombian-born family physician with the Puerto Rico National Guard.

Villa ran a makeshift urgent-care centre in remote Tetuán for more than three months after Maria. He reflects on how dedicated people are to their land, and how unlikely they would be to leave, despite severe economic hardship.

“This is where their family grew up. The elders have lived and died here. They love the land and they love the peaceful life that they have here,” Villa says.

A well-established anthem reverberates throughout Puerto Rico: Pa’lante! Loosely translated, it means “onward!”. The motto captures a spirit of determination that is a common trait of Puerto Ricans. As new environmental realities force islanders to reckon with the natural world in all its complexities, well-organised communities like Tetuán are acknowledging a messy reality where the outside world and technology both intrude and offer solutions.

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https://rethink.earth/disaster-hope-fear-and-resilience-in-rural-puerto-rico/feed/0The Nairobi Dam: from community resource to open sewer – and back againhttps://rethink.earth/the-nairobi-dam-from-community-resource-to-open-sewer-and-back-again/
https://rethink.earth/the-nairobi-dam-from-community-resource-to-open-sewer-and-back-again/#respondWed, 07 Nov 2018 06:00:31 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=3048Kibera is one of the largest urban slums in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and on the African continent. Originally a Nubian farming settlement named Kibra, or “forest” in the Nubian language, little forest now remains.11. Parsons, Timothy. “‘Kibra Is Our Blood’: The Sudanese Military Legacy in Nairobi's Kibera Location, 1902-1968.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 30, no. 1, 1997, pp. 87–122.Access via JSTORSee all references
This dense urban neighbourhood stretches for nearly 2 miles, over 225 hectares, covering a space about two-thirds the size of New York’s Central Park.

Population estimates for Kibera range between 200,000 and 700,000; somewhere around 300,000 people live there, according to a recent assessment by Map Kibera Trust. Sanitation facilities are limited and a single communal latrine usually serves hundreds of people. When the latrines fill up, they drain directly into the watercourses that run through the settlement, or are emptied into them. Clean drinking water is also a scarce resource, often sold illegally and at much higher prices than in the rest of the city.

And yet, the settlement sits on the banks of a body of water that once provided clean water and more to the whole city of Nairobi. The Nairobi Dam – and the reservoir it created – is not an easy next-door neighbour. The area was once a favourite stamping ground for Nairobi’s elite, and a source of clean water and fish for residents of Kibera. Today it is considered a serious health hazard and a risk for the city, having partially collapsed in 2012.

A number of attempts to clean up the dam and its reservoir have had limited success. “Generally, they have focused solely on rehabilitating the reservoir while neglecting to address what happens upstream,” says Vera Bukachi, an environmental engineer and director at Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), a non-profit working in Kibera since 2006.

“The issues affecting the Nairobi Dam are complex, but chief among them is the upstream pollution from Ngong River tributaries and encroachment over time from both formal and informal reclamation,” Bukachi says. “Given its proximity to Kibera, rehabilitation of the reservoir must have at its heart a multi-pronged approach that considers the physical and socioeconomic issues of poverty; participatory and equitable development for surrounding communities and residents; and a deep understanding of the upstream and adjacent ecosystem.”

The lack of formal services and, indeed, of space, forces Kibera residents to be innovative in order to create workable living environments.22. Elmqvist, T., Siri, J., Andersson, E. et al. Sustain Sci (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0611-0
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-018-0611-0See all references
Entrepreneurship and ingenuity are necessary qualities and a part of daily life. Density, resource efficiency, and an emphasis on reuse can point towards lower-impact ways of living.

Focusing on the potential of communities and the fast pace of change as opportunities for renewal, entrepreneurship, and activism, KDI works to remove the “slum conditions” from informal settlements to create new ways of urban living – in dense, environmentally efficient cities, with healthy, thriving human and natural ecosystems. Taking these principles as a starting point, KDI has worked with local residents to clean up the rivers upstream of the dam since 2006. They are now beginning to see real results.

The Story of the Nairobi Dam

Located in the heart of Nairobi, the Nairobi Dam was built in the early 1950s to provide back-up water supply to downtown Nairobi, storing water flows from the Ngong River and the Rift Valley escarpment. In the late 1950s and 1960s it became a popular destination for sailing, swimming, and fishing among colonial and Kenyan elites, remembered by former prime minister Raila Odinga as “a place of recreation and fishing when I was young”. It remains the location of the Nairobi Sailing and Rifle clubs today.

The settlement of Kibera, Nairobi Golf Course, and the Nairobi Dam in 1948. Courtesy of KDI.

Edward Maywa, chair of the New Nairobi Dam Community group (NNDC) and a neighbour of the reservoir for many years, remembers when he first moved to Kibera 20 years ago: “It was watery… there were fish here! And water birds.” But all this was about to change.

After Kenya’s independence in 1963, Nairobi grew fast, and Kibera even faster. The contested but largely empty land around the reservoir became home to thousands of newcomers, and the rapid growth of informal housing was not matched by infrastructure or services for these new residents. The rivers that flowed into the reservoir gradually filled with human waste, silt, and garbage. Water quality plummeted.

The river water flowing through the Ngong forest upstream of Kibera is relatively clean, but once it reaches the reservoir, the levels of organic pollutants are equivalent to those of raw sewage, and concentrations of heavy metals are high.3-43. NRBP, 2008. “Nairobi River Basin Programme Phase III, Resource Booklet on Pollution Monitoring Activities”, IUCN, NETWAS, UNEP. Download PDF4. Ndeda, L. A., Manohar, S., 2014. Determination of Heavy Metals in Nairobi Dam Water, (Kenya) IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology 8(5):68-73 Download PDFSee all references
Few organisms can survive in the reservoir. The water’s passage through Kibera is short compared with the extent of the Ngong River that flows into the reservoir, and the Nairobi River that leaves it, but the settlement has a huge effect on water quality. Consequently, any efforts to restore water quality in the reservoir that do not address the sanitation challenges in Kibera are futile.

Levels of organic pollution along the Ngong-Motoine River. Source: Nairobi River Basin Project. Courtesy of KDI.

As a result of the waste emanating from Kibera, the water behind the dam has been unusable for water supply or recreation since the 1980s. Increasingly its surface is overgrown by water hyacinth, and houses have been built ever closer to the watercourses.

Today water remains severely polluted and poses a threat to the health of both people and local ecosystems. The reservoir has become a breeding ground for mosquitos that carry malaria and bacteria causing typhoid fever. And after decades in the clear, Kibera and Nairobi experienced an outbreak of cholera last year.

“First, it smells. It brings diseases like cholera, which kills quickly. It floods inside the houses and damages your possessions. There was a time it flooded and kids got trapped in their houses. The water got into their eyes and damaged their sight,” says Jackie Kiamba, NNDC treasurer and a resident of Kibera.

The deteriorated reservoir also threatens the resilience of the larger urban systems. Nairobi experiences water shortages in the dry season, and increasingly severe flooding in the rainy season. As the reservoir is overgrown and its water unusable, its capacity to act as a buffer for both of these extremes is lost.

Cleaning up

Some politicians and Nairobi residents blame the deterioration of the reservoir on the people living in Kibera, without recognising that it is the lack of sewerage and waste disposal alternatives that drives pollution. Various attempts by the government and other institutions to improve conditions at the reservoir also have not considered the full context of the problem.

Over the past two decades, four major initiatives have tried to clean up the reservoir, and all have largely failed or stalled. To understand why they have not been more successful it is useful to look at what the initiatives have had in common: they have not engaged local communities, they have failed to connect the social to the ecological, and they have drawn the boundaries of the projects too close to the reservoir – both physically and metaphorically.

Various attempts … to improve conditions at the reservoir also have not considered the full context of the problem.

A renewed government-level push in 2018 to reclaim Nairobi’s rivers could be a vehicle for change. However, the lack of consultation in recent infrastructure interventions in Kibera and other low-income neighbourhoods – including the much discussed “rich man’s road” that cuts straight through Kibera and has caused many thousands to be evicted – is not a good sign.

Kibera Park

In 2006 KDI started working with a group of residents around the dam and its reservoir to remediate the unsafe and polluted area. Building from their understanding of the relationships between reservoir and settlement – the ecological and the social – KDI partnered with community members to design a public space that could respond to the intertwined challenges residents faced.

Through a series of workshops and focus groups, residents articulated their priorities – flood protection, improved sanitation, opportunities for youth, and income generation – and explored how a multi-functional public space could produce both social and ecological benefits. KDI worked with them to gradually synthesise these concepts into a consensus design, while residents established NNDC to manage site operations and maintenance.

The Kibera Park site adjacent to Nairobi Dam before the joint project. Courtesy of KDI.

The once-shunned rubbish dump and crime hotspot is now a tranquil, green, open space, known locally as Kibera Park. Managed independently by NNDC, which represents 50 households living in the area, the park serves between 1,000 and 2,000 people per week. It features a green space with benches, chess tables, and an amphitheatre; a public composting toilet facility; a water tap; laundry facilities; an NNDC office; a garden and greenhouse; a shamba (or small urban farm); security lights; a sundries kiosk; and a flexible, multi-purpose community centre.

Maywa remembers how people used the space to commit violent acts: “Security-wise it was so bad – crime was very high. It was the raping area. And people who had been killed elsewhere were dumped in this site.” Today, he says, things have changed, and Kibera Park “benefits the community because when they want to share ideas they can come here. It’s open, green, it has trees, and it has shade. It also benefits the community because we have income – we have the toilet and compost; we have the greenhouse to plant crops.”

It is easy to see the difference comparing before and after images of the space, but many of the important changes are not so easy to spot. Residents use the community hall to gather and organise around local issues and rent it out to a school and a church. Special panels on the building serve as drying racks for harvested water hyacinth, which is woven into baskets by a women’s craft collective. The roof of the building captures rainwater – reducing flood risk, providing a source of income, and supporting the greenhouse and shamba. Each physical element is part of a system of programmes and initiatives that bridge the ecological, the social, and the economic to tap into the potential of both the site and community.

Kibera Park after development. Courtesy of KDI.

Reservoir, river, city, watershed

Since working with NNDC, KDI has partnered with new communities to replicate this participatory, holistic process at nine more sites, all located along tributaries upstream from the dam. In one, bamboo plantations provide erosion control and a green environment; in another, a constructed wetland provides wastewater treatment in a pay-per-use toilet block. In yet another, underground storage made of recycled fizzy drinks crates enables storm water to infiltrate the ground while kids play above.

The sites, known collectively as the “Kibera Public Space Project”, emphasise the value of the watercourses running through the settlement as a functioning and valuable ecosystem, and identify ways to rediscover that value through planting, landscape-driven engineering, solid waste management, and sanitation services. The combination of environmental, social, and economic development strategies is critical in each project, and the central involvement of the community in design and decision-making ensures each intervention is adapted to the site-specific context. Community involvement also ensures that ownership is local and increases the likelihood of long-term commitment and maintenance.

…many of the important changes are not so easy to spot.

The implications of this network of remediated spaces along the watercourses extend beyond Kibera. While these small projects do not make for large-scale transformation on their own, they hold lessons for the larger context of the Nairobi Dam and for other watersheds. If integrated projects that are based on community priorities and knowledge can lead to environmental remediation, civic activity, and economic development at the local scale, what is the potential for linking these spaces as a network of green and blue infrastructure, and as a framework for larger upgrading?

Building resilience from within

As city institutions struggle to keep pace with rapid urbanisation, informal settlements like Kibera are proliferating around the world. They are often associated with high risks for both people and the planet. And as climate change progresses, many of these settlements face threats of flooding, landslides, extreme heat, disease, conflict, and more.

As a response to such challenges, participatory processes that take into account social, economic, and ecological needs are not simple – in fact, they can be expensive and time consuming. Faced with the vexing realities of poverty and the lack of adequate housing and infrastructure in Kibera, it might seem easier, cheaper, and faster to simply build new houses and drainage systems.

However, like an increasing number of civil society and government organisations, KDI believes that actively involving local communities and adopting a holistic approach is critical for the impact and sustainability of any intervention. By tapping into community knowledge about the social and ecological contexts; drawing on the human ingenuity and adaptability that often flourish in informal areas; and developing holistic, nature-based approaches to support both human and natural ecosystems, there is an opportunity to create radically different neighbourhoods in the cities of the future.

And there are positive examples to learn from. For example, Muungano wa Wanavijiji is a social movement of slum dwellers in Kenya centred around another major slum in Nairobi, the Mukuru Special Planning Area. Their work shows how residents’ voices, supported by the technical and scientific skills of locally engaged partners, can be brought to the fore of planning processes to generate unexpected ideas and innovative solutions. Muungano have challenged KDI and other partners to think about what this process might look like in Kibera – and how the river systems and reservoir could provide a framework based on natural infrastructure in the future.

Green and public spaces in low-income neighbourhoods should not be considered a luxury – they are necessities for the health and resilience of both people and the planet. They can also be places of tremendous opportunity for civic engagement and a means to address the multiple dimensions of poverty.

Urban ecosystems have many important functions, and striking a balance between human and environmental priorities can generate double wins. KDI’s approach widens the scope for what is considered as part of the problem. “When we draw a boundary line that does not include larger social and ecological systems, we miss half the problem,” says Bukachi.

]]>https://rethink.earth/the-nairobi-dam-from-community-resource-to-open-sewer-and-back-again/feed/0Knowledge mattershttps://rethink.earth/knowledge-matters/
https://rethink.earth/knowledge-matters/#respondTue, 30 Oct 2018 06:00:56 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=3262Consider predicting the weather in Ethiopia. A meteorologist might collect data from past years on weather patterns, such as rainfall and wind direction. This scientist might average these elements, combine them with other data, and then make a forecast. Locals who live in the area might look at the data on rainfall and wind direction, but also at crop growth, the kind of cloud cover, colour of the sky, or even star-moon alignment.

These are examples of two different “knowledge systems” or “ways of knowing”.

Scientists, local community members, and policymakers tend to be disconnected from one another. Exchanges between their knowledge systems have the potential to provide important guidance to policymaking, but they may be rare and challenged by power relations, different terminology and different world views. Within the sustainable development community, connecting knowledge systems with equity, reciprocity, and usefulness for all involved is a growing area of research, with on-the-ground pilots to make these connections real. Weaving them together creates an enriched picture of the world, which can generate new insights that are critical to informing and enhancing conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems.

One example is the work of the Karen indigenous community of the Hin Lad Nai village in northern Thailand. The government saw traditional farming systems as destructive and threatened to evict locals from their traditional territories. Community members mobilised their traditional knowledge, using traditional rotational farming systems that are sustainable. They were able to safeguard their forest from exploitation, while gaining international recognition of the validity of their practices by presenting them at meetings like those of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Part of that recognition came from ongoing community-based research and from documentation of Karen people’s knowledge, passed on and developed through generations.

As Ellika Hermansson Török, acting director at SwedBio, puts it, “The role of our organisation is to bridge between multiple actors, SwedBio uses the term ‘knowledge interface’ to describe its role in facilitating meetings that bring together scientific, policymaker, practitioner, and local and indigenous knowledge.”

With a connected, diverse group of actors and an enriched picture in hand, it is critical to bridge vertically across scales to bring locally anchored experiences and knowledge into global discussions. Without integrating diverse knowledge as valuable evidence for policymaking, it will be difficult to sustain a healthy biosphere while leaving no one behind.

An example of crossing scales and connecting actors is unfolding in the urban context of Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital. Local inhabitants here identified a solution around a shared problem: a way of tackling the increasing pollution of the Lilongwe River. Gathering their knowledge and experiences, and discussing them with local authorities and international non-profit organisations, they introduced a simple innovation: setting up composting stations at two local markets that were identified as key sources of river pollution. The locals could not have done this without first mobilising their local knowledge, and sharing it with partners with other sets of knowledge at the right time.

Lizulu market in Lilongwe. Photo: Viveca Mellegård.

In many other parts of the world, as in Thailand and Malawi, knowledge collaboration can serve as a springboard to launch solutions that are good for both people and the environment. These solutions are needed in a time where human impacts on ecosystems have accelerated exponentially, where the chasm of social disparities is widening, and where poverty persists.

Economic interests sometimes overtake the rights of people living on their traditional land and sustainably using nature and its resources. Where the rights and customary sustainable use of local communities is oppressed, it’s often a handful of passionate individuals who work to protect biodiversity and uphold human rights from multiple threats. Grassroots advocates called “community paralegals” use their knowledge of the law to identify ways for the voice of marginalised communities, their rights, and their traditional knowledge systems to be recognised and safeguarded.

With mandates from her local community, and travelling together with community leaders to the capital, Bertha Cáceres filed complaints against the proposed Agua Zarca Dam and its effects on the Gualcarque River, which is spiritually important to the Lenca people. Copyright: Goldman Environmental Prize.

“Addressing interconnected challenges requires dialogue across sectors and actors,” says Pernilla Malmer, senior adviser at the SwedBio programme. “Strengthening human well-being must go hand-in-hand with promoting sustainable use of ecosystems. Dialogues where actors come together on equal levels encourage all parties to jointly address complex and often conflictual social and environmental challenges.”

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https://rethink.earth/knowledge-matters/feed/0Marine plastic pollution – a planetary environmental problemhttps://rethink.earth/marine-plastic-pollution-a-planetary-environmental-problem/
https://rethink.earth/marine-plastic-pollution-a-planetary-environmental-problem/#respondThu, 04 Oct 2018 05:00:25 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=2811At the western edge of Mumbai, Versova Beach was once a rubbish and plastic graveyard. Today, after two years of volunteer efforts to clean it, hatchlings from a vulnerable turtle species have been sighted decades after they disappeared due to the acute pollution of this stretch of beach along the Atlantic Ocean.

“I had tears in my eyes when I saw them walking towards the ocean,” says lawyer and environmental activist Afroz Shah, who initiated what UN Environment calls the “world’s largest beach clean-up project”. Shah estimates that more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic have been removed from Versova Beach, thanks to the massive volunteer clean-up operation. About 55,000 people live in slums along the coastline of India’s largest city, and over 1,000 volunteers participated in the work.

Versova Beach is a local example of the global problem of plastic waste. Volunteer pickup projects are no solution to the millions of tonnes of plastic estimated to be accumulating in the ocean. Plastic has made its way into all marine ecosystems on Earth – from the open ocean surface in the South Pacific Gyre to the deepest part of the world’s ocean, the Mariana Trench. It can be found in even the most remote areas in the Arctic and Antarctic. Over the past few years, plastic pollution as a global problem has caught the eye of the public as well as of researchers and policymakers around the world.

Sea turtles have again been sighted at Versova Beach, after a massive clean-up innitiative that cleared the beach from more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic.

Plastic waste is a global problem, but what exactly is the problem? Negative effects, such as filling sea birds’ and turtles’ stomachs, are known, but researchers are concerned there may be more unknown effects looming on the horizon. Could plastic affect the way the Earth functions? If so, it could be considered within the framework of planetary boundaries – the safe operating space for humanity. Researchers from the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University (publisher of Rethink) and GRID-Arendal (a Norwegian foundation working with the UN Environment Programme) have investigated whether plastic pollution could be considered a part of the planetary boundary for “chemical pollution and the release of novel entities”.

What’s the problem with plastic?

Bits of plastic have been found everywhere in the ocean. They can come from car tyres, packaging, cosmetics, hygiene products, and clothes. One of the major problems with plastic is that it doesn’t completely degrade – it just breaks down into smaller and smaller fragments when it is exposed to sunlight and ocean waves, or when consumed by animals.

Versova Beach before the clean-up. Photo: Afroz Shah

Marine wildlife choke on plastic bags and plastic straws. Researchers at Plymouth University say nearly 700 marine species are threatened by marine plastic pollution.11. S.C. Gall, R.C. Thompson, The impact of debris on marine life, Mar. Pollut. Bull. 92 (2015) 170–179 Link to articleSee all references
And it’s not just large plastic pieces that are a potential threat: microplastics – or plastic particles that are smaller than 5 mm – are impossible to remove with current technologies once they find their way into the environment. But even though the plastic pieces may be invisible to the human eye, they are still damaging ecosystems.

The harmful effects of plastic can come from substances added during plastic production, for example flame-retardants and dyes, as well as from other toxic chemicals that stick to and accumulate on plastic particles, entering the marine environment and food chain.22. UNEP (2016) Marine plastic debris and microplastics – Global lessons and research to inspire action and guide policy change. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi.Link to reportSee all references
Researchers have found that some species exposed to high concentrations of hormone-disrupting chemicals, such as Bisphenol A and phthalates used in plastic production, pass adverse reproductive effects onto their offspring generations later.33. Heindler, F. M., Alajmi, F., Huerlimann, R., Zeng, C., Newman, S. J., Vamvounis, G., & van Herwerden, L. (2017). Toxic effects of polyethylene terephthalate microparticles and Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate on the calanoid copepod, Parvocalanus crassirostris. Ecotoxicology and environmental safety, 141, 298-305.See all references
These chemicals have been found to interfere with the human hormone system, and may be related to increased risks of cancer, reproductive difficulties, behavioural disorders, and other human health problems.44. Vom Saal, F. S., Akingbemi, B. T., Belcher, S. M., Birnbaum, L. S., Crain, D. A., Eriksen, M., ... & Ho, S. M. (2007). Chapel Hill bisphenol A expert panel consensus statement: integration of mechanisms, effects in animals and potential to impact human health at current levels of exposure. Reproductive toxicology (Elmsford, NY), 24(2), 131.See all references

How microplastics affect human health remains largely unknown and needs more research. Because some of these toxic chemicals don’t break down, scientists suspect that they can stick to and accumulate on plastic particles that then enter the environment and eventually travel up the food chain, potentially reaching humans. Microplastics have found their way into an extraordinary range of products, such as honey and sugar, shellfish, cultured mussels and oysters, bottled water, and table salt.22. UNEP (2016) Marine plastic debris and microplastics – Global lessons and research to inspire action and guide policy change. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi.Link to reportSee all references

An ever-increasing number of studies report on the threats that plastic poses to the environment and to human health. Still, consumer habits, industry activities, and policies are only now beginning to change.

Where does all this plastic come from?

Global plastic production has risen from around 2 million tonnes a year in the 1950s to around 380 million tonnes in 2015. Estimates are that more than 8.3 billion tonnes have been produced since the early 1950s.55. Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017). Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Science advances, 3(7), e1700782. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700782See all references
With the exception of materials that have been incinerated, approximately 80% of all the plastic that has ever been produced is still around, mainly in landfills or the natural environment.66. Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., ... & Law, K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771.See all references
Around 8 million tonnes of bulky plastic waste – and an additional 1.5 million tonnes of microplastics – enter the world’s ocean every year.77. Boucher, J., & Friot, D. (2017). Primary microplastics in the oceans: a global evaluation of sources. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.See all references
Carried by waves and ocean currents, plastic also accumulates along shorelines of densely populated coastal communities.

If plastic production, recycling, and consumption behaviour don’t change drastically, an additional 33 billion tonnes of plastic waste will be dumped in landfills or the environment by 2050.88. Rochman, C. M., Browne, M. A., Halpern, B. S., Hentschel, B. T., Hoh, E., Karapanagioti, H. K., ... & Thompson, R. C. (2013). Policy: Classify plastic waste as hazardous. Nature, 494(7436), 169.See all references
Many of these plastic products, such as wrappers and other packaging materials, are disposables designed for a single use after which they are thrown away. Only around 9% of used plastic is recycled globally.55. Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017). Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Science advances, 3(7), e1700782. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700782See all references

Many developed countries have chosen to export plastic waste to be recycled in developing nations. Meanwhile, developing countries are trying to tackle plastic waste but do not have the resources or recycling systems in place to deal with the scale of the problem. But things are starting to change. Now China, for example, has banned all imports of waste materials from other countries. This increases the pressure on waste-exporting countries to find more sustainable ways to dispose of and recycle waste.

The planetary impact of sea plastic

The mismanagement of plastic waste can increasingly be felt on a global scale. Researchers are now looking at the impact of plastic on the Earth system and the planetary boundaries. The planetary boundaries are the limits of natural systems or processes that keep Earth in a relatively stable state.99. Villarrubia-Gómez, P., Cornell, S. E., & Fabres, J. (2017). Marine plastic pollution as a planetary boundary threat–The drifting piece in the sustainability puzzle. Marine Policy.See all references
. Planetary boundary processes include climate change, ozone depletion, and ocean acidification.1010. Galloway, T. S., & Lewis, C. N. (2016). Marine microplastics spell big problems for future generations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(9), 2331-2333.See all references
Could the concentration of plastic in the ocean, today or in the future, go beyond critical thresholds leading to global effects in these processes? Could plastic pollution be considered a key component of the planetary boundary associated with chemical pollutants?

These questions have been explored by researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) and GRID-Arendal (GRID), who have evaluated existing knowledge of the effects of plastic pollution in marine ecosystems on a planetary scale – from large plastic items to microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics.99. Villarrubia-Gómez, P., Cornell, S. E., & Fabres, J. (2017). Marine plastic pollution as a planetary boundary threat–The drifting piece in the sustainability puzzle. Marine Policy.See all references
The research team looked at the direct and indirect effects of marine plastic pollution on marine wildlife, as well as changes across time, space, and ecosystems.

Chemical pollution experts have argued that pollutants posing a threat to the Earth system must meet three main conditions simultaneously in order to be regarded as part of the planetary boundary for chemical pollution and the release of novel entities. First, the pollution must be irreversible or very difficult to reverse; second, the disruptive effect must not be discovered until it is a problem at the global scale; and third, the pollution must disrupt Earth system processes.1111. MacLeod, M., Breitholtz, M., Cousins, I. T., Wit, C. A. D., Persson, L. M., Rudén, C., & McLachlan, M. S. (2014). Identifying chemicals that are planetary boundary threats. Environmental science & technology, 48(19), 11057-11063.See all references

For the first condition, the SRC and GRID research team found evidence that suggests marine plastic pollution is indeed irreversible. Plastics are everywhere in the environment. They are even considered to be a geological marker of the Anthropocene,1212. Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C. N., do Sul, J. A. I., Corcoran, P. L., Barnosky, A. D., Cearreta, A., ... & McNeill, J. R. (2016). The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene, 13, 4-17.See all references
or the Age of Humans: plastic is a new type of material that will be encapsulated in rocks all over the planet, for future geologists to study as a marker of the current geological time period, in which human activity has become the dominant influence on the environment.

From microscopic to global scale, marine plastic pollution could be affecting important Earth system processes

The second condition – where the disruptive effects of a pollutant might not be discovered before they become a problem at a planetary scale – is less clear-cut, but since plastic is being redistributed across land and around the world’s ocean, the concentrations of it as a contaminant are nearly the same globally. This means crossing critical thresholds would happen in very many places at once, so plastic also meets the second condition.

The second condition also encompasses other scenarios that the chemical pollution experts at Stockholm University have suggested, which fit other ways in which plastic may be affecting natural systems worldwide – depending on how “planetary scale” is defined. On some beaches microplastics are present in such high concentrations in the sediment that they may be changing the flows of nutrients and water. Plastic on heavily polluted beaches also affects the sand’s surface temperature, which can affect sex determination in sea turtles’ eggs – an already endangered species and a key species in marine ecosystems.1313. C.L. Yntema, N. Mrosovsky, Critical periods and pivotal temperatures for sexual differentiation in loggerhead sea turtles, Can. J. Zool. 60 (1982) 1012–1016.See all references
These are local effects, but may happen in several places across the globe – one scenario.

Research also shows that copepods –­ tiny crustaceans that play a crucial role in marine food webs – produce fewer and less-healthy offspring if they consume large amounts of microplastics.1010. Galloway, T. S., & Lewis, C. N. (2016). Marine microplastics spell big problems for future generations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(9), 2331-2333.See all references
Such changes could lead to booms or collapses of important species that eat copepods, with knock-on effects over time in entire ecosystems and the Earth system processes they maintain – another scenario. The time delay between exposure to plastic and possible effects – the fourth scenario – helps to explain why there is still so much scientific uncertainty about the extent to which marine ecosystems are affected by plastic pollution.

For the third main condition, the disruption of Earth system processes, the researchers looked at how carbon is captured and stored in the ocean. The tiny copepods that play such a vital role in food webs also influence the flow of carbon in the ocean and its eventual burial and storage in ocean sediments. Scientists have found that if copepods have eaten microplastics, their faeces doesn’t sink down into the water as fast as usual. That change in settling rate also changes the flow of carbon and nutrients in the ocean.1414. M. Cole, P. Lindeque, E. Fileman, C. Halsband, T.S. Galloway, The impact of polystyrene microplastics on feeding, function and fecundity in the marine copepod
Calanus helgolandicus, Environ. Sci. Technol. 49 (2015) 1130–1137, Link to articleSee all references
The consequences are still unknown but may be linked to climate change – which means that microplastics could affect one of the biggest Earth system processes and planetary boundaries.

Other recent research is providing more evidence of links between marine plastic pollution and climate change. For example, sunlight accelerates the breakdown of plastic, which releases methane – a powerful greenhouse gas.1515. Royer S-J, FerroÂn S, Wilson ST, Karl DM
(2018) Production of methane and ethylene from
plastic in the environment. PLoS ONE 13(8):
e0200574.Link to articleSee all references
Another climate kick could come from microplastics floating on the surface of Arctic waters: here they might interfere with the formation and melting of the ice cover, which could lead to climate change because polar ice reflects sunlight and slows warming.

From microscopic to global scale, marine plastic pollution could be affecting important Earth system processes.

Microplastics. Photo: Oregon State University/Flickr

Moving forward

Marine plastic pollution meets two of the three main conditions for it to be considered a chemical pollutant in the planetary boundary framework: it is irreversible and globally pervasive. But, “irrespective of whether marine plastic is integrated into the planetary boundaries framework, it is evident that marine plastic pollution is already implicated in global processes to a point that deserves much more careful monitoring and precautionary management”, says Sarah Cornell, an SRC researcher.

Many questions remain as to how marine plastic pollution affects the environment, but it is undoubtedly a global problem requiring immediate international attention. With millions of tonnes of plastic entering the seas every year, a globally coordinated approach is needed to tackle the vast and growing scale of plastic waste. International organisations, such as the UN, and countries with robust implementation of waste-management systems, such as Norway and Sweden, are working to create platforms for knowledge- and experience-sharing and providing funding to implement initiatives in countries where plastic pollution has become uncontrollable.

Research is needed to fill the many big gaps in understanding the effects of plastic pollution on ecosystems and people’s health. Education and innovation – along with strong commitment at local, national, and international levels – are needed to reduce plastic pollution and restore the health of coastlines and beaches.

The good news for this global environmental problem is that everyone can be part of the solution by simply using less plastic every day.

]]>https://rethink.earth/marine-plastic-pollution-a-planetary-environmental-problem/feed/0Global goals need African voiceshttps://rethink.earth/global-goals-need-african-voices/
https://rethink.earth/global-goals-need-african-voices/#respondThu, 20 Sep 2018 11:57:10 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=2848“The mouth is ignorant: after eating, it forgets who provided the food”, so an African proverb says. But it is essential that we understand how our food arrives onto our plates – a path that is a result of processes linking nature and people. A vast web of connections defines the nutrients in our stews, the incomes of rural farmers, and, ultimately, the sustainability of the planet.

Understanding the footprint of our food systems and their effects on rural poverty requires finding the connections. One ambitious international scientific initiative is attempting to draw such strings together. For “The World in 2050” (TWI2050), hundreds of experts and scientists around the world have gathered to map out the pathways in which the world reaches the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include the eradication of hunger and poverty by 2030 within the safe operating space of the planet – the planetary boundaries.

Because many Earth system processes – such as the water cycle – are slow, the TWI2050 initiative has complemented the 2030 Agenda with a 2050 timeline. This request for a longer time horizon also aligns with the African Union’s time perspective outlined in the Agenda 2063 framework.

There could be many ways to achieve the SDGs by 2030, to be mapped by The World in 2050 initiative. Courtesy of SwedBio and ICSU.

What are the possible scenarios that could get us to those 17 goals, and to a sustainable global economy in subsequent decades? The TWI2050 initiative aims to find those scenarios. The initiative has, however, been missing key voices, in particular those from Africa. The complex-systems thinkers and computer-modelling experts involved have had difficulties incorporating the concerns of people on the ground and fully representing this diversity in perspectives. At the same time, African stakeholders are building capacity, showing eagerness to participate on the pan-African and world stages, while often lacking opportunities to do so – few African stakeholders have been invited to participate in global modelling efforts.

An initiative by the SDG Center for Africa, supported by SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, provides a first step in including these perspectives. Grassroots organisations, government officials, business representatives, scientists, and activists from all regions of Africa are developing a collaborative partnership to ensure that local voices are heard in the global modelling effort, and to change the future discourse by providing new scenarios and alternative perspectives. A first African dialogue was held in August 2017 in Kigali, Rwanda, with a second following at the end of October 2018. The main focus of the dialogues is how agriculture can contribute to achieving the SDGs within the planetary boundaries.

The first African Dialogue on The World in 2050 (TWI2050) took place in Kigali, Rwanda, in August 2017. Photo courtesy of SwedBio.

Agriculture: the economic backbone

Africa plays a key role in shaping the world’s sustainable development towards 2050 and beyond, to achieve the African Union’s vision of an “integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena”. Global food demand is forecast to double by 2050.11. Valin, H., Sands, R. D., van der Mensbrugghe, D., Nelson, G. C., Ahammad, H., Blanc, E., Bodirsky, B., Fujimori, S., Hasegawa, T., Havlik, P., Heyhoe, E., Kyle, P., Mason‐D'Croz, D., Paltsev, S., Rolinski, S., Tabeau, A., van Meijl, H., von Lampe, M., Willenbockel, D., 2014. The future of food demand: understanding differences in global economic models. Agricultural Economics, 45: 51-67. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12089 See all references
And according to UN projections, by 2100 more than 80% of the world’s people will be living in Africa or Asia, by which time Africa’s population may have grown from 1 billion to more than 4 billion. Per AGRA’s 2017 Africa Agriculture Status Report, the agriculture sector employs up to 65% of the African workforce, and the World Bank has projected that by 2030 Africa’s food and agriculture market could be valued at US$1 trillion.

Last year, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan emphasised the importance of agriculture in reducing poverty in Africa: “Africa is witnessing a quiet revolution, which holds out real hope of banishing poverty and hunger and driving economic growth. This transformation is not in sectors like oil and gas, minerals or tourism, which grab global headlines, but in agriculture, which remains the backbone of the continent’s economy.”

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 30 African countries endured 84 droughts between 2005 and 2016. The majority of Africans depend on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods, with low capacities to adapt to hazards, limiting efforts of sustainability.

In African contexts, agriculture is typically seen not just as a trade or a source of livelihoods, but also as a practice that incorporates culture and traditions that are transferred from generation to generation. African knowledge systems that are inherently traditional or indigenous often share the view that our planet is imbued with life as much as humankind is, which impacts people’s environmental values and attitudes.

Obayanju Babawale from Health of Mother Earth Foundation, a Nigerian environmental advocacy organisation, says that the agricultural lifestyle is profoundly intertwined in the Nigerian culture, and recalls a proverbial song he grew up with: “Ise agbe, nise ile wa … Eni ko si se ise ama ja ole … Iwe kiko lai si oko ati ada … Ko yi pe o …”, which translates from Yoruba to “Farming is the job in our land, whoever does not carry out this job will end up stealing. And any education that does not teach about farming is not complete”.

Towards inclusive global modelling

Africa is diverse and extremely large; “one size fits all” policies and approaches are ill-suited to tackling the agricultural challenges of the continent. Instead, different perspectives related to ecosystems, social classes, gender, ethnicity, age, locality, and culture within the society need to be taken into account in agricultural planning. It is also essential that agriculture is seen as a respected source of livelihood – to increase investments and to attract skilled labour that meet the demands of the future. This can be done through the sustainable use of technology-supported farming that leverages local knowledge while inspiring the younger generation to carry the trade forward.

“any education that does not teach about farming is not complete”

Sustainably eradicating hunger in Africa requires a flourishing diversity of species in their natural environment. Flying insects, for example, are pollinators without which a vast tract of the plant kingdom, both wild and cultivated, cannot survive. A recent case in Rwanda underscored these pressures when a bee-keeping cooperative near Akagera National Park reported a significant threat to the bee colony due to a pesticide applied on a maize farm in a nearby district. Intensified farming methods can turn farmland into a wildlife desert, threatening not just bees but also soils and soil-dwelling creatures and other parts of the ecosystem, resulting in less productivity and fewer varieties of crops.

Maintaining the variety of life and the quality of soils underpins the agricultural sector for the long term. According to a recent FAO report, “high-input, resource-intensive farming systems … have caused massive deforestation, water scarcities, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions”.22. FAO, 2017. The future of food and agriculture – Trends and challenges. Rome. ISBN 978-92-5-109551-5PDF (ISSN 2522-722X online)See all references
Depleted soils have severe long-term consequences including loss of livelihoods and migration. Data from Africa, on soils health and beyond, need to be included in global models and scenarios for the future, including in TWI2050.

Any inclusive development agenda rests on successful agricultural development. Leaving no one behind entails sensitising everyone from policymakers to individual farmers, whether in remote areas or semi-urban settings. It also requires feeding voices, data, and other relevant information from Africa and beyond into international efforts like TWI2050 and the SDG Center for Africa. In the end, this pluralistic view will support the efficient implementation of the SDGs by 2030, and a better global outlook for all as the century progresses.

]]>https://rethink.earth/global-goals-need-african-voices/feed/0Collaboration without consensushttps://rethink.earth/collaboration-without-consensus/
https://rethink.earth/collaboration-without-consensus/#respondThu, 06 Sep 2018 09:22:53 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=2683When tensions flare, and everything you’ve been working on together might fall apart, it’s often the moment there’s a chance to chart a better course. But seizing that opportunity and navigating the shift in the dynamics of confrontation and cooperation doesn’t happen by accident. I’ve learned that from 25 years working on development partnerships, from the highlands of Guatemala to the floating villages of Cambodia.

The Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia has been called the “beating heart” of the Mekong River basin for the cycle of floods that expand its surface as much as fivefold and then recede each year. It’s a hotspot of freshwater biodiversity, second only to the Amazon. Its floodwaters nourish some of the most productive agricultural lands in the country. It’s also the largest freshwater fishery in Asia, a source of food and livelihood for over 5 million Cambodians who live within its watershed.

Since the mid 1990s, the lake has shown increasing signs of degradation. The causes include sediment and pollution from upstream deforestation and agriculture, clearing of flooded mangrove forests, and construction of dams and roads that separate wetlands important for fish spawning and migration. Fishing pressure has also intensified, driving many fishers to use illegal and destructive practices including fishing with fine-mesh nets, electric shock fishing, and pumping to drain protected habitats.

In 2009, I launched an action research project to encourage the main adversaries in a social, economic, and political battle over the future of the Tonle Sap fishery to better understand the risks to the system and work together to save it. The project, led by WorldFish, was financed by a grant from the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

We brought together the national fisheries management authority, the most active and vocal grassroots network of fishing communities, and the leading domestic policy research institute, the Cambodia Development Resource Institute. The goal was to find new ways to support the resilience of community fishery livelihoods, amid rapid change.

Young women in the floating village of Prek Toal on the Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia.

During the project we learned that collective action doesn’t always require consensus on the solutions. Indeed, understanding the roots of conflict between different interest groups is key to building collaboration.

We subsequently distilled the lessons of this approach into a framework for facilitating collaboration under conditions of resource competition and conflict. In such circumstances, learning how to create alignment towards a broader, shared purpose – even without agreement on a plan of action – can open unexpected pathways towards transformative change.

Dialogue with a purpose

When the Tonle Sap project began, the floating community of Phat Sanday had for many years petitioned the government for the right to expand their fishing grounds. Commercial fishers, who benefited from a system that assigned them exclusive access to rich fishing grounds, were opposed to this expansion. So was the Fisheries Administration, responsible for granting the licences.

The spokesperson for the grassroots network of small-scale fishers, the Coalition of Cambodian Fishers, routinely and publicly criticised the government for failing to address the needs of the poorest communities. The government’s reaction put our partnership at risk just as it was about to begin.

“How can I work with somebody who goes on the radio attacking me?” the director general of fisheries asked me in a meeting the project partners held to salvage the project.

The small-scale fishers were trying to call attention to inequity and conflict from increasing pressure on a declining resource. While the director general didn’t agree with the details or the tone they used, he couldn’t deny that the grievances were voiced by the very communities his agency was meant to serve. Rather than escalate the dispute, he agreed to commit his staff to a process to investigate the sources of conflict over the fishery. Critically for the success of the initiative, this would be done together with the Coalition of Cambodian Fishers, and with the semi-independent policy research body the Cambodia Development Resource Institute.

Over the course of 15 months, we held a series of jointly organised dialogues in five provinces surrounding the Tonle Sap Lake. Each dialogue began at the community level and then proceeded to the provincial level. Participants included fishers and farmers, traders, fisheries and environment officers, district officials, local non-governmental organisations, police, military police and others involved in resource use and enforcement.

Investigating the sources of stress on community fishery livelihoods, the dialogues looked not only at livelihood trends, enforcement practices, and the health of fish populations, but also at the broader context: what happens when flooded forests are cleared to expand dry-season rice production, removing important fish habitat? What are the likely effects of upstream dam development on flooding and fish migration? Who benefits and who loses out when shared environmental resources are converted to private use?

Community fishery members on a joint patrol with officers from fisheries, environment, and other enforcement agencies, near Phat Sanday commune on the Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia. Photo: Ryder Haske.

Workshop participants also worked to visualise possible futures, debated pathways to reach these, and finally made commitments to act, individually or together with others. These commitments did not require all stakeholders to agree as part of a shared action plan. Instead, the intent was to actively listen and learn from the perspectives of others, investigate the consequences of different approaches, and reflect on how well the choices they made would address the overarching purpose: strengthening the resilience of community fishery livelihoods.

This purpose had been defined by the convening partners and refined through the dialogue events. It was broad enough for key actors to embrace and flexible enough to include a range of more specific goals. For small-scale fishers, like those from Phat Sanday, a main goal was to expand the fishing grounds available for community-based management. By mapping the network of actors directly or indirectly involved in allocating fishing rights, the fishers found new ways to influence decisions.

Bringing the provincial governor and provincial agencies into the dialogue opened opportunities to subsequently engage political leaders at higher levels. A leading official in the National Assembly with ties to the area proved especially influential. After a joint visit to Phat Sanday with the minister of agriculture and the top leadership of the Fisheries Administration, he declared, “there’s nothing we can’t resolve”.11. Ratner, B.D., K. Mam, G. Halpern. 2014. Collaborating for resilience: Conflict, collective action, and transformation on Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake. Ecology and Society 19(3): 31.See all references

With the aid of organisations promoting citizen engagement, fishers eventually won the chance to present their concerns directly at an open forum in the parliament. And after a debate among key agencies, the president of the senate backed the idea of releasing the fishing area in question to community access. That decision, announced by the Ministry of Agriculture in October 2010, was the first such action in nearly a decade. Not only was it a victory for the small-scale fishers of Phat Sanday, it also signalled the potential of community mobilisation to influence resource policy.

With renewed confidence from this success, the Coalition of Cambodian Fishers and other civil society groups launched a coordinated campaign around the Tonle Sap Lake. The following year, the prime minister suspended the entire system of commercial fishing lots, and then abolished it in 2012. Combined with the earlier reform of 2000-2001, this constitutes the largest transfer of freshwater fisheries from commercial to community management in Asia.22. Ratner, B.D., S. So, K. Mam, I. Oeur, and S. Kim. 2017. Conflict and Collective Action in Tonle Sap Fisheries: Adapting Governance to Support Community Livelihoods. Natural Resources Forum 41(2): 71-82.See all references

Not only was it a victory for the small-scale fishers of Phat Sanday, it also signalled the potential of community mobilisation to influence resource policy

Community groups and government agencies have since worked together on a range of more local innovations made possible by the dialogue processes as well. These include joint patrolling to strengthen fisheries law enforcement, negotiations among neighbouring provinces to settle disputes over protected areas, and exploration of new regulations to enable community-based commercial fishery operations.33. Ratner, B.D., C. Burnley, S. Mugisha, E. Madzudzo, I. Oeur, K. Mam, L. Rüttinger, L. Chilufya, and P. Adriázola. 2018. Investing in multi-stakeholder dialogue to address natural resource competition and conflict. Development in Practice. DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2018.1478950.See all references

Facilitating collaboration

Typically, development projects begin with the assumption of consensus, even if it’s not spelt out: project managers set objectives, activities, and indicators of success because project partners agree on the change that’s needed and the steps to get there. But this approach brings serious constraints. It can reduce the range of actors who engage, either because they are excluded from the start or because they are consulted in a superficial way, without a real chance to debate competing perspectives. It can also reduce the range of solutions considered, which may mean missing out on the most innovative and transformational ideas.

An alternative is illustrated by the action research experience described above – organising a process of dialogues to generate collaborative action based not on consensus around the steps needed but on agreement to work towards a shared purpose.

The Collaborating for Resilience initiative has worked to communicate the most important principles in this process of dialogue. Together with local partners in Zambia, Uganda, and Cambodia, along with Berlin-based adelphi research, we field tested and refined a collection of guidance materials to aid practitioners from government, civil society, and development agencies.44. This partnership, under the Strengthening Aquatic Resource Governance (STARGO) project, was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in Germany, with additional support from the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets.See all references
The result is a framework for building and sustaining an effective dialogue with a variety of actors when there is competition or conflict over resources.55. Ratner, B.D., and W.E. Smith. 2014. Collaborating for Resilience: A Practitioner’s Guide. Penang, Malaysia: Collaborating for Resilience. (Also available in French and Spanish.) See this and other guidance publications at www.coresilience.org.See all references

The framework draws upon several decades of innovation and research in the fields of organisational development and stakeholder engagement theory and practice.66. Smith, W.E. 2009. The creative power: Transforming ourselves, our organizations and our world.
New York: Routledge. Smith, W.E. 2009. The creative power: Transforming ourselves, our organizations and our world.
New York: Routledge.See all references
In a nutshell, it’s about defining a shared purpose, gathering the key actors, and engaging in a series of structured dialogues to explore pathways to change. We’ve called the three phases in the process “Listening”, “Dialogue”, and “Choice”. Each phase addresses a distinct set of questions.

This is a process that recognises and embraces the tensions between different perspectives, interests, and priorities. It actively wrestles with multiple dimensions of power. And, by respecting the responsibility of each participant for decision making, it taps the potential of collective action to envision and pursue unexpected goals.

The framework emphasises the importance of effective stakeholder engagement and mutual learning, two elements considered important for building resilience. Encouraging authentic engagement and mutual learning demands that development practitioners adapt their role to facilitate different stages of the process.

This often requires a very active role in structuring a phase of open listening, when dominant voices might otherwise rule. But as the process moves into developing plans for action, after a healthy debate about options, the facilitator may need to step back to allow participants to make genuine commitments. The sum of these individual commitments is often much more powerful and innovative than a negotiated action plan that all agree on. This can make the difference between gradual and transformational change.

Governance innovation for resilience

Civil society groups, local authorities, national agencies, universities, and international research partners have begun to apply this framework to a range of natural resource governance challenges, and they are seeing results.

In Zambia, villagers along the shores of Lake Kariba were able to negotiate favourable terms with international investors in fish farming, securing land and water access rights as well as jobs. In Uganda, in an area with poor public services and a history of disputes with government officers, women have led collective action initiatives that have improved environmental health and sanitation, and generated new responsiveness from government agencies.77. Ratner, B.D., C. Burnley, S. Mugisha, E. Madzudzo, I. Oeur, K. Mam, L. Rüttinger, L. Chilufya, and P. Adriázola. 2018. Investing in multi-stakeholder dialogue to address natural resource competition and conflict. Development in Practice. DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2018See all references

In India, the Foundation for Ecological Security is integrating the approach in its work to value and protect environmental commons, working to restore depleted waterways and degraded forest “wastelands”. The organisation is active across eight states, reaching over 7,000 villages, and aims to increase its reach fivefold over the next five years.

Lasting changes in the way decisions are made over natural resource use – regime transformations – often begin with local institutional innovations such as these. The Coalition of Cambodian Fishers and the Foundation for Ecological Security are examples of “system entrepreneurs”88. Westley, F., Olsson, P., Folke, C., Homer-Dixon, T., Vredenburg, H., Loorbach, D., Thompson, J., Nilsson, M., Lambin, E., Sendzimir, J., and Banerjee, B. (2011). Tipping toward sustainability: emerging pathways of transformation. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 40(7), 762-780.See all references
, aiming both to support local innovations and to disrupt governance norms in ways that encourage the spread of such innovations.

When changes touch upon hotly debated issues – such as fishing rights, foreign investment, or land policy – there’s a need for broad engagement of different actors who could support a change as well as those who might oppose it. But efforts to get broad engagement often get stuck early in the process, in trying to reach agreement on defining the problem and the desired pathway to a better future.

A structured dialogue process can help move past this sticking point. It creates a safe space for actors to explore possible futures, based on a clear understanding of the risks and sources of conflict in the current reality. And it can feed insights from local innovation into debates over national-level policy change.

More recently, the International Land Coalition has partnered with Collaborating for Resilience to build capacity for national policy dialogue to improve land governance in 22 countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The political and social dynamics vary immensely from Bangladesh to Madagascar to Nicaragua. Yet, facilitators working to promote civil society engagement in policy design and implementation are finding common ground on the principles that underpin successful national strategies.99. Ratner, B.D., A. Rivera Gutierrez, and A. Fiorenza, forthcoming (2018). Guidance Note: Engaging government for policy influence through multi-stakeholder platforms. Collaborating for Resilience and International Land Coalition: Rome.See all references

At a moment when longstanding norms of international engagement seem to be eroding, we also need new thinking on approaches to tackle the most urgent social and environmental problems at the global scale. The pace of innovation required to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and adapt national and regional economies for climate resilience demands collective action at many levels. The same goes for other imperatives of planetary security, such as halting biodiversity loss, or creating a circular economy that reduces material use, pollution, and waste.

Collaboration is no substitute for formal, negotiated agreements and regulation, but it’s an important means of creating change. It can yield positive examples of ways forward when consensus is beyond reach. It can build mutual trust and shared commitment to support the agreements that follow. And it can foster lasting transformations in the policies and institutions that both constrain and catalyse progress towards sustainability.

]]>https://rethink.earth/collaboration-without-consensus/feed/0Building resilience one mangrove forest at a timehttps://rethink.earth/building-resilience-one-mangrove-forest-at-a-time/
https://rethink.earth/building-resilience-one-mangrove-forest-at-a-time/#respondThu, 23 Aug 2018 10:44:27 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=2700A woman plants a mangrove seedling in the mud as her son looks on. The child looks up at her and asks, “Mother, why are you hiding the plant in the mud?” The mother says, “Son, these fish are coming here because of these plants. That’s why I plant these plants here.” What she describes is one of the mangrove forests’ important functions – they act as a breeding ground for fish, birds, prawns, and crabs, and the productivity of fisheries and biodiversity of coral reef ecosystems depend on them.

Anuradha Wickramasinghe, chair of the Sri Lankan-based non-governmental organisation Sudeesa, looked on as the interaction between the mother and child played out, and he recalls this scene often. Women have previously stayed and worked in the home, but Wickramasinghe says that it is important to involve women in environmental initiatives because in Sri Lanka mothers are the most influential people in children’s lives. If women learn the importance of the environment, they will pass this knowledge on to their children.

Sudeesa helps poor fishing communities with job training and microfinance programmes. It has partnered with the Sri Lankan government and Seacology, a US-based environmental conservation group that helps island communities in more than 60 countries protect natural habitats. The partners have launched an innovative and historic effort to make Sri Lanka the first nation to fully protect all of its mangroves – the goal is to create a green belt of mangroves around Sri Lanka. To do this, the partners are taking a three-pronged approach that incentivises women to replant and protect mangroves; provides micro-credit to improve livelihood options; and trains women to understand the role a healthy ecosystem plays in building resilience.

Restoring and protecting mangroves can shield coastal communities from flooding, while creating livelihood opportunities and supporting healthy ecosystems. Mangrove forests are some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems, but an increasing number of projects and initiatives are now dedicated to changing this trend. There is no blueprint for how to do it, but experiences from different projects point to what is needed to succeed.

Paramanathan Jena is a member of the CBO Kadal Kanni. Here she is collecting crabs from fishing nets in Sri Lanka. Photo: D. Thuram/ Sudeesa.

Why mangroves matter

Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean. Mangrove forests grow in brackish waters, and can be found on the coast around the whole island. They provide both ecological and economic benefits for coastal communities, who use the mangrove forests for shade, fishing, and collecting firewood. They cut mangrove poles for construction or for charcoal production. Mangroves also act as a breeding ground for fish, prawns, and crabs.

However, mangroves are one of the most threatened ecosystems worldwide.11. Chaudhuri P, Ghosh S, Bakshi M, Bhattacharyya S, Nath B (2015) A Review of Threats and Vulnerabilities to Mangrove Habitats: With Special Emphasis on East Coast of India. J Earth Sci Clim Change 6: 270. doi:10.4172/2157-7617.1000270See all references
Over the period from 1980-2005, mangrove losses were estimated to exceed 3 million hectares, and from 1990-2000, mangroves were estimated to be disappearing at a rate twice as fast as rainforests.22. Thomas, N., Lucas, R., Bunting, P., Hardy, A., Rosenqvist, A. and Simard, M., 2017. Distribution and drivers of global mangrove forest change, 1996–2010. PloS one, 12(6), p.e0179302.See all references

The removal of mangrove ecosystems has had far-reaching economic, social, and environmental impacts, especially for the poor

In the northern part of Sri Lanka, much of the mangrove forest was destroyed during the 1983-2009 civil war, in government efforts to stop the Tamil tigers from hiding in the dense vegetation.

On the west coast of the country, mangroves were destroyed to make way for shrimp farms. These became popular in the 1970s when the government provided subsidies for such farms. Wickramasinghe says, “Shrimps were a lucrative business for people in Colombo, but now the destruction is declining because we [Sudeesa] work with the Ministry of Environment [to protect the mangroves].”

But other threats to mangroves continue to loom. Karen Peterson, senior manager of special initiatives at Seacology, says, “There are all kinds of threats to mangroves – everything from the really small scale, cutting them down for charcoal and construction, all the way to [coastal] development [to make way for hotels and resorts]. This is of greater concern now because Sri Lanka is on the upswing in terms of development as it is becoming a more popular tourist destination.”

Combating flooding

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka faces annual monsoons and heavy inland flooding. The impact of these annual floods has increased over recent decades as the country’s population has grown and mangroves have been cleared for increased coastal development. The removal of mangrove ecosystems has had far-reaching economic, social, and environmental impacts, especially for the poor as they are more dependent on these ecosystems for their livelihoods and well-being.

In 2004, Sri Lanka was devastated by the tsunami that was caused by the Indian Ocean earthquake. “The communities that were the hardest hit were those that were the most developed and had the least mangrove coverage,” says Peterson. Floods cause more damage worldwide than any other type of natural hazard and cause some of the largest economic, social, and humanitarian losses, accounting for 47% of all weather-related disasters from 1995-2015.

Women are disproportionately affected by flooding compared with men, not just in Sri Lanka but also globally. They commonly experience more social, cultural, economic, and political disadvantages that can result in higher mortality rates during floods, and higher poverty rates after floods due to more unemployment and the lack of legal rights such as land ownership. Women also face greater psychological stress during and after a disaster because of their caretaker role in the family.33. Bonanno, G.A., Galea, S., Bucciarelli, A. and Vlahov, D., 2007. What predicts psychological resilience after disaster? The role of demographics, resources, and life stress. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 75(5), p.671.See all references

Flooding has often been dealt with through structural measures such as dams, dykes, and reservoirs with concrete seawalls. These expensive, single-focused approaches tend to be driven by top-down governance that does not consult local communities, and they often have negative impacts on the environment, including on fisheries and access to fishing.

But such structural methods are failing to cope with increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and rising sea levels. A more inclusive method of limiting flood impacts that works with the local environment and local people is needed.

To meet this need for new approaches to combat the problem of increasing flooding, Sudeesa and Seacology are working to protect and restore mangroves, and educate communities, school children, and even tourists about the importance of these ecosystems.

The partners are working to create a transformation in how mangroves are seen and managed, by focusing on the importance of healthy, thriving mangrove ecosystems. They also provide a space for inclusive decision-making in the communities. The goal is to help build the capacity of women to protect and restore mangroves. In doing so, the communities are enhancing and promoting the ecosystem functions of mangroves, which provide environmental benefits and contribute to coastal protection, livelihoods, and well-being.

A Community Beneficiary Organisation (CBO) meeting. Photo by Sudeesa.

Getting women on board

To replant and protect mangroves, Sudeesa and Seacology engage local women. “Conservation projects have a much greater chance of success if you engage women. Also, in the wake of the war there are a lot of widows,” Peterson says.

The project started in 2015 and by 2020 it will have trained 15,000 women in a five-day training programme that covers mangrove conservation as well as how to develop a business plan and financial planning. Those who attend the training are eligible for a microloan to put their business plan into action.

Through the training, the women join a Community Beneficiary Organisation (CBO) or form one if one does not already exist. The CBOs have the goal of protecting all the mangroves that surround the villages, and they represent 1,500 villages in 14 coastal districts in Sri Lanka. The mangrove-protecting and replanting activities take place through the CBOs. Women in the CBOs have told Peterson that they didn’t really understand the functions of mangroves before the programme, but now they really see their importance.

“Before we used to cut down the mangroves for firewood, but not anymore. If anyone tries to cut down the mangroves we will report it to Sudeesa – who will take action,” says Niranjala Fernando who is a member of one of the CBOs.

So far, more than 7,000 women have been trained and received loans for alternative, sustainable livelihoods. Many but not all of these livelihoods are fishery related: “They range from fishing, making and selling dried fish, to having home gardens and livestock. Though the majority are fishery related as many of the communities are fishing communities,” Peterson says.

Wickramasinghe says the women’s situations have been transformed since joining the training programme and the CBOs. Previously they stayed and worked in the home, while their husbands were out fishing, but now they have developed their own skills and voice their opinions in community decisions.

Niranjala Fernando is a member of one of the CBOs. She runs a cage fishing business supported by funding through the CBO. Photo: S. Verkaart

The women are also included in the decision-making processes in the CBOs. In this way the CBOs “help the women find their voice in community decisions, especially in areas that were harder hit by the war”, Peterson says. Wickramasinghe agrees. He says that he has noticed a change in that women are more active and forward now, talking to government officers and acting as representatives on environmental committees.

Mangrove regeneration initiatives that involve local communities have been found to be more successful than those that exclude the communities.11. Chaudhuri P, Ghosh S, Bakshi M, Bhattacharyya S, Nath B (2015) A Review of Threats and Vulnerabilities to Mangrove Habitats: With Special Emphasis on East Coast of India. J Earth Sci Clim Change 6: 270. doi:10.4172/2157-7617.1000270See all references
This is because they take into consideration the communities’ knowledge of which species are appropriate and where they should be planted. Involving local communities also enhances their ownership of the project, making it more sustainable in the long term.

Not just Sri Lanka

Mangrove-replanting initiatives are taking place around the globe. For example, One Architecture, a firm based in New York and Amsterdam, is also turning to nature to build resilience by replanting mangroves to combat flood risk in the Philippines. The project takes place in Tacloban City, an area that was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded in history – killing over 6,000 people and destroying Tacloban and other parts of the Philippines in 2013.

Diosdado Dagandan was in his garden in Nula-Tula, near Tacloban City, when Haiyan hit. He remembers hearing a loud sound and then seeing the big wave just before it reached his house: “I went straight to our house and grabbed my wife. I told my wife, ‘We need to get out of here or else we’ll be dead.’ I really saw a huge wave coming. Right after we got outside our home, in just less than 5 seconds, the wave was already there and the water kept on rising quickly.” Dagandan was able to swim, holding onto his wife, and they both survived.

Flood risk in Tacloban is exacerbated by various gaps in the coastal green belt, and in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan the experiences of people in coastal communities made the local government see the value of mangrove forests. “We thought that it was the end of the world for us, because most people live in coastal areas. But there were others who were saved because of mangroves. The many testimonies from these coastal residents convinced us that planting resilient mangrove species along the coastlines can save properties and even lives,” says Marito Barillo of Tacloban City government.

The One Architecture project started in 2017 and aims to move from plans to action by filling gaps in the green infrastructure, improving coastal protection while incentivising communities to protect and maintain reforested areas. It is a multi-stakeholder initiative, with the community, local and national government, private sector, academics, and non-governmental organisations participating in mangrove and beach forest restoration projects. The main focus and success of the project so far has been identifying blockages in the local governance system that are hampering wider restoration efforts and addressing these to move forward. A key learning experience shared across the partnership has been the importance of a science-based approach to selecting planting methods and species types.

Another example of mangrove replanting is ResilNam, which works to enhance flood resilience in coastal communities in Thua Thien Hue, central Vietnam, by strengthening the role of women in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. About half a million people live in 32 communes along the lagoon and the coast here. In recent decades, the low-lying coastal areas have been repeatedly affected by severe flooding from the sea, rivers, and heavy rainfall.

The project is a collaboration between the Centre for Social Research and Development in Vietnam, the University of Potsdam in Germany, and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It trains women in the sustainable management and restoration of mangrove ecosystems and urban water bodies. ResilNam has planted more than 13,000 mangrove seedlings around South-East Asia’s largest lagoon. Ms Laan, one of the participants, says “Since participating in the project I feel more confident because I have more knowledge about climate change, the important role of mangroves in environmental protection and flood prevention, as well as that a better environment of the lagoon means that we will have better incomes.”

Not a one-size-fits-all solution

Mangroves do not fully protect coastal communities from tsunamis and flooding, but they dampen the effects of extreme events and provide many other benefits for coastal communities. And the interest in protecting and restoring these coastal ecosystems has increased in recent years. But not all succeed in their efforts. Wetlands International recently reported that although mangrove planting is hugely popular, many efforts fail to establish sizeable, diverse, functional, and self-sustaining mangrove forests due to weak or no involvement of the community, mono-species planting, and poor choice of location.

In the Philippines, mangrove-replanting efforts are extensive, but not necessarily effective or sustainable. “If you plant a mangrove in the wrong place it will not survive,” says Arne Jensen at Wetlands International. “There is a learning curve here, if you try to adopt or copy nature – planting the right front species – it will survive. But if you manipulate nature and choose the wrong [non-typhoon-resistant] species, then there is almost a 100% guarantee that when you have a strong typhoon like Haiyan, it will die and not recover.”

Finding a sustainable model for funding can also be a challenge. Many projects rely on external funding and would not be able to sustain themselves. However, there are different ways to support activities to protect mangroves.

The Sudeesa and Seacology project in Sri Lanka is also looking to become self-sustaining. The partners have built a mangrove museum, mangrove training centres, and mangrove nurseries. “The idea is that these facilities will bring in revenue, which will allow the project to be self-sustaining,” says Peterson.

Wickramasinghe explains that women have developed their own financial capacities since being part of the training programmes. They now know how to build a self-sustaining business and how to get help from banks and the government.

Mangroves for a sustainable flood-resilient future

Protecting and restoring mangrove forests is a broader approach to combating flooding than hard infrastructure development and engineering solutions, such as building dams and dykes. There is no blueprint or one-size-fits-all way of doing it, but the examples show that with community participation, local and scientific knowledge at hand,11. Chaudhuri P, Ghosh S, Bakshi M, Bhattacharyya S, Nath B (2015) A Review of Threats and Vulnerabilities to Mangrove Habitats: With Special Emphasis on East Coast of India. J Earth Sci Clim Change 6: 270. doi:10.4172/2157-7617.1000270See all references
the appropriate location and a self-sustaining model, this approach can provide a good foundation to build resilience in coastal communities. Wickramasinghe agrees. He says, “We [Sudeesa] combine the traditional knowledge of the fishermen with the scientific knowledge of the importance of mangroves […] and incorporate women because they are the real focus group for the protection of mangroves [and] have the influence in their families even over their husbands.”

Involving communities in environmental initiatives to work with rather than against nature helps support and enhance ecosystems, provides a space for inclusive decision-making, and shows that systems are intertwined – one issue cannot be solved in isolation of another. Healthy mangroves can protect communities from flooding while also providing livelihoods and healthy ecosystems with valuable resources.

~~~

The mangrove-replanting projects of Seacology & Sudeesa, One Architecture, and ResilNam are all supported by the Water Window Challenge funded by the Z Zurich Foundation through the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP). GRP is an independent partnership of public and private organisations joining forces towards a sustainable and prosperous future for all. The GRP Secretariat is hosted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

]]>https://rethink.earth/building-resilience-one-mangrove-forest-at-a-time/feed/0The informal food economy – a source of income and belonginghttps://rethink.earth/the-informal-food-economy-a-source-of-income-and-belonging/
https://rethink.earth/the-informal-food-economy-a-source-of-income-and-belonging/#respondThu, 09 Aug 2018 07:58:58 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=2571When it comes to food, you can start with whatever you have. Even if it’s just enough to buy two eggs. You can boil them and go to the street and sell them. Slowly you work your way up. We help each other here. That’s how it works,” says Fatima. She was born in Somalia but now runs a small kiosk in Belleville, also known as Somali Town, in Cape Town.

Stepping out of the car in Somali Town is like crossing a threshold into a different city. Though it is a mere 15 minutes’ drive from downtown Cape Town with its hustle and bustle, it seems far away.

Repeated waves of xenophobic violence have swept across South Africa in recent years. Human Rights Watch estimates that in April 2015 alone, more than 2,900 people were internally displaced because of the violence. As a result, migrants have gathered together to form their own communities – Somali Town is one of these.

In the midst of the tension, between the shadows of crumbling apartment buildings and the flickering glow of fluorescent strip lights, these run-down inner-city blocks have become a rallying point and a place to belong. In South Africa, communities such as Somali Town serve as platforms for re-establishing some sense of normality, in a country where migrants face threats of violence and lack access to state support.

And globally, migration is at an all-time high. Now more than ever, people move across the planet, sometimes searching for adventures and new opportunities, but often to escape poverty, crises, and conflicts. Increased migration inevitably affects social and economic systems, creating both challenges and opportunities for society.

Soul food: Injera, typically not made to be eaten alone, is an invitation to come together. Copyright: Luke Metelerkamp.

The informal food economy, which falls outside official regulation, plays a key role in many migrants’ lives, as it offers opportunities for livelihoods and a way to stay connected to families and communities far away. The International Labour Organization estimates that the informal economy accounts for 85% of all jobs in Africa and that especially vulnerable and marginalised groups, including women and children, often find it is their only livelihood option.

In/Between is a project that uses a collection of film and photography to explore the role of food in memory, migration, and livelihoods in Somali Town. Through interviews with migrants, the project raises questions around our understanding of informal livelihoods and remittance flows (the payments that migrant workers send to their families back home) that support millions of families globally.

Driven by conflicts, climate change, environmental degradation, or the search of a better life, these numbers are on the rise.33. Connor P. 2018. International migration from sub-Saharan Africa has grown dramatically since 2010. PEW Research Centre.LinkSee all references
People are on the move, and money flows along their migration paths. The annual global remittance flow in 2013 exceeded foreign aid funding worldwide – US$350 billion versus US$130 billion respectively.44. Bodomo, A. (2013). African diaspora remittances are better than foreign aid funds: diaspora-driven development in the 21st Century. World Economics Journal. 14.See all references
Global remittances have become central to questions of global development funding.

However, with rising levels of unemployment in Africa and Europe55. International Labour Organisation (ILO) 2017. Global unemployment expected to rise by 3.4 million in 2017. International Labour Organisation.LinkSee all references
and tensions around migration, migrants may find it increasingly difficult to find work abroad in future. Considering the scale of remittance flows, the ability of migrants to settle in safety and establish basic levels of livelihoods affects people across the globe.

Small enterprises in the informal economy play an important role in migrants’ survival strategies, and the prevalence of food-related businesses within this economy warrants attention. A study from 2016 showed that more than half of 10,000 small businesses in the informal economy in South Africa sell food or beverages.66. Petersen L, Charman A & Kroll F (2017) Trade dynamics in Cape Town township informal foodservice – a qualitative and supply chain study, Development Southern Africa, 35:1, 70-89.DOI:10.1080/0376835X.2017.1412297See all references

Local traders and newcomers

A small kiosk owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, recounts how she fled Somalia with nothing but the clothes on her back. Without a passport or money, she made the 8,000-km journey, illegally crossing countless borders to end up in Cape Town. An informal network of Somali safe houses supported her through the journey. The network reflects the same spirit of solidarity that helped her set up a food kiosk in Cape Town on arrival. She now earns just enough to send money back to Somalia to support her two children, and her eyes light up as she recounts her mother’s recipes that form the basis of her trade here.

Unfortunately, this ability to overcome adversity and band together in harsh environments is fuelling resentment towards Somali traders in South Africa. Collective buying power and sharp business practices are creating competition for local traders, forcing some out of business. A report from the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation warns that “price competition and ‘jealousy’ have resulted in tensions and conflict between South African and foreign shop keepers”. This competition between small (locally operated) and larger (immigrant operated) businesses has resulted in many South Africans closing shop and immigrant entrepreneurs increasingly dominating the sector.

To steer away from this kind of competition, researchers suggest that there is a need for better regulation of the informal employment sector. Policies are needed to limit the practices that force family-run survivalist businesses to close.77. Hartnack A. & Liedman R. 2016. Factors that contribute towards informal micro-enterprises going out of business in Delft South, 2010-2015: a qualitative investigation. REDI3x3 Working paper 20 October 2016.See all referencesA recent report from the International Labour Organization also emphasises that many of those employed in the informal sector lack social protections, workers’ rights and decent working conditions.

There may also be a role for local government and civil society organisations to act pre-emptively to mediate conflict between local traders and newcomers. For example, arts-based forms of dialogue (such as Empatheatre) can help build empathy and understanding, deconstructing notions of “them and us”.

However, framing this only as a tension between local residents and migrants would be short sighted. There are broader shifts taking place in the food system.88. Reardon, T., Timmer, C.P., Barrett, C.B. and Berdegué, J., 2003. The rise of supermarkets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. American journal of agricultural economics, 85(5), pp.1140-1146.See all references
Migrant traders may bear the brunt of local frustration around informal trade, but at the same time large national and international retail chains are rapidly establishing in townships. A market dominated by big players can also force smaller businesses to close down. To address the potential conflicts, there is a need to consider how businesses currently in the informal economy can be supported.

Questions arise about how to address issues of economic power in the context of high inequality, as well as how economies can be structured so that capital stays in vulnerable communities through local businesses, rather than supporting a retail system where profits in large retail chains leave the local area.

Robert arrived from Kenya in 2010 and works six days a week in a Somali-owned restaurant in Somali Town. He came with a group of people during the World Cup and decided to stay. “Arriving in Cape Town, I was so excited to see this place I heard of as the ‘land of honey’. But it was not exactly what I expected. Life challenged me and forced me to build my future myself… I had to start from scratch,” he says.

However, not everyone is as comfortable sharing their stories. Misrak is originally from Ethiopia and came to South Africa in 2002. “Of course, I left the country for political reasons, but I don’t really want to go into that.” She smiles and looks away to indicate the end of that discussion. She says she is happy to be able to serve and eat food from her home country, and she enjoys the service industry and meeting people: “That missing or longing you get for home – a good meal cools it down.”

The role of food for development

Countless narratives like these, of individuals who left their homes but still support family members that stayed behind, personify how social tolerance in stable economies is linked to economic and social well-being in regions in crisis. On closer inspection, the migrants’ stories illustrate how the informal food economy is linked to remittance flows all across the continent of Africa, connecting some of the wealthiest parts of the African continent with some of the least stable and war-torn regions.

And unlike the formal food industry, the informal food economy serves as an important social safety net of last resort for migrant communities. It is central to building resilience among vulnerable communities and the global social networks they support. Beyond the economic importance of the informal food economy, the stories also highlight how food brings people together and explore the universal love of a home-cooked meal, celebrating the simple act of coming together to eat, and the power this holds in bridging perceived gaps between people and cultures.

Insights around this dual role of the informal food economy highlight the need to consider the economic importance as well as the social values of food, in the places people leave behind and in the communities they arrive in.

]]>https://rethink.earth/the-informal-food-economy-a-source-of-income-and-belonging/feed/0The guardians of the Earth’s ecosystemshttps://rethink.earth/the-guardians-of-the-earths-ecosystems/
https://rethink.earth/the-guardians-of-the-earths-ecosystems/#respondThu, 12 Jul 2018 07:13:12 +0000https://rethink.earth/?p=2530Many environmental human rights defenders are “risking their today for our tomorrow” according to John Knox, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment. This issue concerns not just present but also future generations.

One such defender is Phyllis Omido. She is a single mother living in Owino Uhuru, a community on the outskirts of Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city. She learnt that her breast milk was making her baby sick. The streams that residents used to wash, cook, and clean were being polluted with untreated waste water from an industrial plant that extracted lead from used car batteries. Omido also realised that her son wasn’t the only one suffering the consequences.

She mobilised her community and used legal means to stop the pollution. In 2012, they initiated a process of evaluating the likely environmental effects of the plant’s operations, taking into account how water pollution was affecting people’s health. Health scans showed high levels of lead in the blood of local residents.

After a meeting with the UN special rapporteur on toxic waste, a committee of the Kenyan senate came to see the situation. By 2014 the owner of the plant decided to close it.

In the process of bringing attention to the consequences of the pollution the plant was causing, Omido received support from organisations such as Frontline Defenders and Human Rights Watch. They also helped her realise that her case was of international importance.

To avoid similar businesses setting up shop in the future, the community teamed up with pro-bono lawyers from Avocats Sans Frontières in Brussels and took the Kenyan government to court for exposing workers and local residents to lead pollution.

For close to a decade, Omido has been monitoring various illnesses, deaths, and miscarriages that have occurred in her community. She has been threatened, arrested by police, and forced into hiding for organising the opposition to the industrial plant. The non-governmental organisation she founded, the Center for Justice, Governance and Environmental Action – forced the plant’s closure and now promotes environmental justice in Kenya’s coastal regions. The organisation has built a network of support across the world, and in 2015 Omido was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize – the world’s largest prize honouring grassroots environmentalists.

Phyllis Omido with her staff at the Centre of Justice, Governance, and Environmental Action. Copyright: Goldman Environmetal Prize.

“I have learnt over the years that I am not alone,” Omido said in a recent interview. “Thousands of people from around the world risk their lives protecting their way of life – their rights over food, water, clean air and land. They stand up for their basic human rights.”

Paradoxically, often these people in marginalised situations in the Global South, such as Omido, are at the forefront of protecting vital ecosystems and natural resources. They foster sustainability for the planet and people and can provide new insights into how to tackle the increasingly rapid global biodiversity loss.

“This is not just about indigenous communities, the poor or the marginalised. This is about everyone, because environmental rights are enshrined in over 100 constitutions. Even with so many people recognising their rights, often people are unable to assert them when business or government are not held accountable for environmental violations,” says Omido.

Women all over the world see exercising their political rights as critical to their struggle to put food on the table but also as a key to their long-term security and sustainable human development. Research clearly shows the need for development practitioners – as well as politicians and business leaders – to recognise women as agents, not victims, and support them in their work to achieve environmental justice.11. Introduction: Natural Resource Justice Caroline Sweetman &Maria Ezpeleta Pages 353-366 | Published online: 01 Nov 2017 https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2017.1395138See all references

Omido has shown what can be achieved when people get access to basic information and networks, such as other organisations at a national and international level.

In some places, development workers reach out to illiterate women and train them in basic law. Shvetangini Patel, for example, has worked with women’s organisations in the state of Gujarat in India for many years to make sure that the law works for people. She has used creative methods, including illustrations, to train illiterate women on various environmental laws. 22. Centre for Policy Research (CPR)-Namati Environmental Justice Program (2018). Making the Law Count: Ten Environment Justice Stories by Community Paralegals in India. India: CPR-Namati Environmental Justice ProgramSee all references

Paralegals offer support

As grassroots civil society efforts have proved effective in many parts of the world, the role of community paralegals has evolved significantly. Community paralegals are grassroots advocates who use their knowledge of the law to seek concrete solutions to instances of injustice. They are trained by law specialists and development workers, are often linked to lawyers who provide guidance and are helping people to hold firms accountable for damage to rivers and farmland. They can play a vital role in empowering communities around the world, making it possible for community members to protect their rights and the biodiversity of their regions.

The Kenya hub of the civil society organisation Natural Justice is based in Nairobi and includes a team of lawyers, mainly women. They advise community paralegals in Lamu, on the northern coast of Kenya, who work with their communities on how to access environmental information at the county level, for example about the impact that infrastructure projects have on water.

Lamu was declared a Unesco biosphere reserve in 1980, has a rich cultural heritage, and is the home of rare marine species such as sea turtles, sharks, and dugongs. Concerns are now growing over the construction of a port and a coal plant in the region, where water pollution could have a devastating impact on marine wildlife and on local fishing communities.

Local community paralegals have taken on the cause, as part of a larger collaborative partnership between Natural Justice and SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Centre to support legal empowerment in Kenya and Zimbabwe. The paralegals are writing letters to access information from the authorities concerning the construction of the Lamu port, complaint letters concerning the breach of environmental regulations, and follow-up letters when replies are not forthcoming. Thanks to these persistent requests, the paralegals are starting to make an impact. They have also expanded their efforts to educate public officials in the understanding of citizens’ rights to demand and receive records from public authorities.

In April this year, the High Court of Kenya declared that the construction of the Lamu port failed to meet basic constitutional and legal requirements. Compensation of 1.7bn Kenyan shillings (£12.7m) was awarded to the 4,600 fishers affected by the construction of the port. The case was led by Katiba Institute, with the support of the environmental protection organisation Save Lamu, Natural Justice, and Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide.

Defenders face threats and violence

Environmental human rights defenders are voicing the interest of their own communities but also defend those who are voiceless – plants and ecosystems, animals, and other living beings. The land they protect provides globally important carbon stores, havens for wildlife, life-saving medicines, and clean water for millions. For people to fully enjoy their human rights to good health and food, they need the services that healthy ecosystems provide, and maintaining biodiversity is necessary to ensure that ecosystems remain healthy and resilient.

With mandates from her local community, and travelling together with community leaders to the capital, Bertha Cáceres filed complaints against the proposed Agua Zarca Dam and its effects on the Gualcarque River, which is spiritually important to the Lenca people. Copyright: Goldman Environmental Prize.

Development projects often have international funders and investors. For example, both the Finnish and the Dutch governments were financing the hydroelectric dam opposed by Cáceres. A key part of tackling the human rights defenders crisis is to see that states and businesses in industrialised countries, who invest in other countries, comply with their human rights obligations and ensure that the projects they finance do not violate those rights.

There are discussions towards developing an international legally binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. And the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights spell out that while states retain a duty to protect populations against corporate human rights abuses, businesses have a responsibility to avoid human rights abuses resulting from their activities, or those of business partners, at home or abroad.

But many human rights defenders continue to face threats and violence. Concerned about the disappearing forest, people in a remote village have been defending a community-protected area in the Prey Lang forest in central Cambodia. One of them, Phorn Sopheak, was attacked when she went on a regular patrol to make sure illegal loggers were not cutting down trees. The illegal loggers routinely threaten her for speaking out against environmental destruction, and the attack was a warning of worse things to come. But Sopheak says she intends to continue her work: “The government has laws to protect the forest, and […] has said that Prey Lang will be a protected forest. But local officials don’t take serious action to protect the environment.”

Phorn Sopheak scroll the timeline of her friend’s Facebook that posted her photos during a five-day patrol combating illegal logging in central Cambodia. Copyright: Savann Oeurm/Oxfam.

Finding new ways to recognise defenders

Concerns are growing and vital steps are being taken on a global level to protect environmental human rights defenders who work to safeguard the environment on which the enjoyment of human rights depends. Last year, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a landmark resolution requiring states to ensure the rights and safety of environmental defenders. And in March this year the UN Environment Programme adopted a policy on “promoting greater protection for environmental defenders”. In this policy, the UN recognises that women environmental defenders face increasing risks related to their activism.

The UN is also moving towards recognising the human right to a healthy environment. In March 2018, John Knox proposed 16 “framework principles on human rights and the environment”, and the first two principles emphasise the connections between human well-being and ecological well-being. Knox says that while the right to a healthy environment has been recognised in regional agreements and in most national constitutions, it has not been formalised in a human rights agreement on a global level. A formal global recognition of a human right to a healthy environment could help protect those who increasingly risk their lives to defend the land, water, forests, and wildlife.

In addition to efforts for a global recognition of a healthy environment as a human right, work is also being done to support people in understanding and asserting their rights. The recently launched Environmental Rights Initiative, headed by the UN Environment Programme and other organisations, is aiming to bring environmental protection closer to the people, helping them to better understand their rights and how to defend them.

Strength in numbers

Women environmental defenders around the world are forming networks to push for change they cannot achieve alone. In South and Central America, the Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative brings together national and international civil society organisations. Through the initiative, women from indigenous groups and local communities share their experiences and work together to improve the situation. A registry has been established to gather data on attacks and threats against women human rights defenders. Activists, leaders, and journalists are trained in risk prevention and four national networks have been created in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to protect those under threat.

Phyllis Omido engaging with community members and former factory workers of Owino Uhuru. Copyright: Goldman Environmetal Prize​​.

Omido points out that many people are on the frontline of the fight for a healthy planet. Her community took legal matters into their own hands and saw for themselves how change was happening. Even if it was a slow process, Omido’s community has shown that change is possible. Omido is still working in the civil society organisation to promote environmental justice. She continues to raise awareness in Kenya and beyond about the connections between law, a healthy environment, and people’s well-being, and she is part of a growing movement.

“We want to show environmental defenders can use litigation as a tool and we want the UN to build up the capacity to enforce environmental law in courts around the world,” she told the Guardian. “Defenders are often treated as criminals or people who are hostile to development. That is not the case.”